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Mayor R.T. Rybak engaged citizens and city employees to deal with the city’s budget travails.
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For revised budget, what should be top priority?
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By Cristof Traudes
Residents had a chance to declare their main concerns as Mayor R.T. Rybak took input on his new 2009 city budget If Scott Mackay were in control of the city's budget, he'd take money from parks and put it toward citywide infrastructure. Taron Colenburg would decrease the $188 million allocated for police and fire services. And Charley Underwood would give more to neighborhoods.
During a four-stop mini-tour of Minneapolis, the Mayor R.T. Rybak spoke directly to residents about the 2009 budget, which he's in the process of revising after 11th-hour aid slashings from the state. Rybak said he's expecting another $37 million-per-year Local Government Aid cut if Gov. Tim Pawlenty's proposed state budget goes through.
Rybak is scheduled to unveil the city's revised budget Feb. 23. Check out southwestjournal.com for updates.
Partly to inform the public and partly to find new ideas to deal with the budget problem, Rybak took his work to the people.
"Citizens will see some services decline. Sadly, you can't avoid that if you have to make a cut of this size," Rybak earlier told the Southwest Journal. "What I want to do is make choices that say we would rather have this service stay at a high level and not have this one."
The message on what exactly residents want was a muddled one at the community meetings, but many spoke clearly about the budget's big focus on public safety. Almost half of the city's adopted 2009 general fund is allocated for police and fire services.
"Something's going on there that I don't understand," said Mackay, who attended the Feb. 10 session in Northeast.
Residents questioned whether an investment in police really makes for a safer city and argued that focusing money on strong, responsive neighborhoods instead — what one person called the happy majority — could have the same crime-mitigating effect.
"The only way I can try to think about this is to think outside the box," said Underwood, who attended the Feb. 9 meeting in Kingfield.
Rybak's infrastructure emphasis got a warmer welcome. In the approved 2009 budget, he created an infrastructure acceleration program that puts an additional $27.5 million toward basic maintenance, a direct response to cuts he made five years ago under similar state aid slashings.
"The shorthand for what we did [in 2003] with the budget is that your streets are safer to walk down because they have potholes," he said. "I don't want to do that again."
Infrastructure can no longer wait, he told his audiences.
"Chicago Avenue could have been repaved at $500,000 a mile in 2004. Because we delayed that, we have to rebuild it at the cost of $9 million a mile," he said. "That's only going to go up."
People agreed. Nobody said infrastructure doesn't deserve funding right now.
But they were less giving to parks. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board receives the most general fund money after public safety, which some saw as wrong when roads need to be fixed.
Rybak in turn said that it isn't just streets that need help; the parks also have a serious infrastructure problem.
"But if a walking path slides into the river versus a bridge that isn't staying up ... ?" Mackay asked.
Danielle Nordine contributed to this report.
Budget tracker
STATE
A month after laying out a budget proposal with deep cuts in January, Gov. Tim Pawlenty reportedly said he expects the state's deficit only to grow. The deficit for the 2010–2011 fiscal year currently stands at $4.8 billion; if Pawlenty's predictions come true, it could increase by another $1 billion or $2 billion.
Official new projections will be announced March 3.
Meanwhile, state legislators are hosting a community input session on the budget at 6 p.m. Feb. 24 at Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board headquarters, 2117 West River Road.
CITY
Mayor R.T. Rybak is expected to unveil a revised 2009 budget the week of Feb. 23. He also will continue to take suggestions by e-mail — rt@minneapolis.org — by phone at 311, or at www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/2009budget.
Also, the City Council is taking steps to find alternatives to Local Government Aid.
COUNTY
The Hennepin County Board of Commissioners earlier this month voted to refuse a salary bump expected next year.
In October, commissioners unanimously approved the 3.4 percent pay hike, but the recession created a change of heart. Their compensation instead will remain at about $8,090 per month.
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