🌳 Will Mpls fund its parks?

St. Paul Sets Max Levy Increase, Minneapolis Still Deadlocked

It's budget season in the Twin Cities – the time of year when city governments decide how much tax revenue to collect and how to spend it in the following year. An early step is setting the maximum property tax levy increase for next year. The St. Paul City Council approved a maximum increase of 6.8%, while the Minneapolis Board of Estimate and Taxation failed to agree on a maximum and will need to come to a solution by Wednesday. [Pioneer Press / KARE 11]

• What does that mean? The property tax levy refers to the total amount the city raises from property taxes (i.e. Minneapolis' property tax levy was about $544.5 million in 2026). So when officials talk about an increase to the levy, that doesn't mean every homeowner will be paying a certain percentage more in property taxes, but rather that the total pool of taxes will increase by that much. Individual property tax increases rely on a variety of factors. [City of Minneapolis, page 60 / Brooklyn Center Community Schools]
• Deadlock: The Minneapolis Board of Estimate and Taxation will reconvene tomorrow at 4 p.m. to continue discussions about the tax levy. Park Board Commissioner Tom Olsen argued that Mayor Jacob Frey's proposed 11.3% increase to the total levy, including a 2.5% budget increase for the Park Board, wouldn't provide enough funding to operate the park system at full capacity. BET Vice President Eric Harris Bernstein has raised concerns about overspending by the Minneapolis Police Department and said he isn't comfortable voting for a levy increase without a commitment from city officials to rein in MPD spending. [KARE 11]

PIN pays up: Partners in Nutrition, one of the key players in federal food aid fraud schemes, will dissolve itself and pay Minnesota $18.5 million in a settlement with the state. Partners in Nutrition was a rival organization to Feeding Our Future, and they funneled more than $50 million to food aid sites run by people who have since been convicted of fraud. [Sahan Journal]

RIP (for now): The Seward Cafe is closing its doors "for now," in response to tough financial headwinds. The country's oldest worker-run restaurant has crowdfunded to cover their property taxes in recent years. The cafe will continue to host concerts, but will not operate during regular business hours for the foreseeable future. [Seward Cafe]

Finally, food! After more than a year with no grocery store in downtown St. Paul, the downtown Aldi has finally opened in the space of the old Lunds and Byerlys. Rejoice, Clancy-heads! [Pioneer Press]

Case to abolish ICE: In a new report, international human rights organization Amnesty International has called for the abolition of ICE. The report documents human rights violations, racially discriminatory immigration enforcement, unlawful killings, and more in ICE operations in the Twin Cities and beyond. Amy Fischer, Amnesty's director of refugee and migrant rights, said it's rare for her organization to advocate for the complete abolition of an agency, but that there are "simply no reforms that would bring this agency into alignment with United States right human rights obligations." [Minnesota Reformer]

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