...The inept and ineffective (but I repeat myself) Dem unveiled a budget plan Friday that seeks to restore police funding to nearly the level it was before George Floyd's killing.
The mayor's $1.6 billion spending plan, announced during a virtual speech, includes nearly $192 million for the Minneapolis Police Department, whose fate will come before voters in the November election.
"Following the murder of George Floyd, Minneapolis became ground zero in the debate around the future of public safety and a case study in the dangers of grand pronouncements with little planning," Frey said, referring to a pledge some council members made last summer to work toward ending the department.
He said that while the city has invested in other safety programs, "It would be disingenuous to expect these new, complementary programs to succeed simply by breaking down the work of others."
Frey's 25-minute speech touched on a question that has dogged city officials since Floyd's death in May 2020: If they want to build violence prevention and mental health programs, should they use police funding to do that, or draw from other pools of money?
The mayor's speech kicked off a monthslong budget negotiation process that will finish in December, weeks after the election but before the next class of elected officials is sworn in. Besides increased funding for violence prevention, Frey proposed plans to boost affordable housing and programs aimed at cutting carbon emissions.
Policing, though, is the subject that has captured national attention, as people wait to see whether — and how — Minneapolis will fulfill a promise to transform public safety in the wake of Floyd's murder by a police officer.
Policing and public safety have become central issues in the races for mayor and City Council, and political committees campaigning for and against the replacement of the Police Department have brought in more than $1 million this year alone.
To pay for his spending plan, Frey would rely on a 5.45% property tax levy increase, federal American Rescue Plan funds and cash on hand. The city estimates the levy increase would amount to $140 for an owner-occupied home valued at $297,000, $360 for an apartment building valued at just more than $1 million and $186 for a commercial building valued at $529,000.
The Minneapolis Police Department began 2020 with a budget of about $193 million, an amount that was later reduced amid the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
pandemic and a national debate
... an expenditure of personal wind at the national level that leads to face-making and other histrionics but can't be shown to have ever solved an issue ...
on policing after Floyd's killing.
As they settled on spending figures for the police in 2021, Frey and a divided City Council intensely debated whether police funding should be used to increase violence prevention and mental health programs.
They settled on a $164 million police budget for this year — with the caveat that police could access an additional $11 million in reserves if they received approval from the City Council. With that money since released, and American Rescue Plan funding infused, the Police Department now has about $180 million to spend this year.