Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak today delivered his third annual budget address and presented his 2005 City budget to the City Council. "My two biggest priorities are to continue to restore the City's financial health while avoiding layoffs and minimizing force reductions in the Police Department, and I'm pleased that this budget accomplishes both objectives," Mayor Rybak said. The Mayor's budget maintains the policies established in the five-year financial direction, a plan to pay off inherited debt, and deal with large funding cuts from the state. Elements of the five-year plan include paying off pension debt and internal service fund debt, capping levy increases, capping wage increases at two precent and holding the line on fee increases. The only major deviation from the five-year financial direction is increased funding for the Police Department. "I've spent much of the summer finding ways to prevent layoffs in the Police Department without affecting the financial health of the City or cutting funding even deeper for other departments. Federal and state government has already taken away funding for 120 cops since 2001. By avoiding Police layoffs and continuing to work more efficiently, we will be able to maintain our high-level of 911 response and continue to improve on community policing and prevention," Mayor Rybak said. Rybak's budget avoids Public Safety layoffs by employing a combination of budget savings and new revenue and a focused retirement incentive to encourage officers eligible to retire to do so. This budget stays within the City's adopted tax policy that caps the City's share of property taxes increases at eight percent. This translates to about a two percent increase in the City's share of property tax for the average homeowner. Three-quarters of this increase goes just to pay off past debt, while 25 percent pays for the increased cost of maintaining services. Additional key initiatives in the Mayor's proposed budget include: * Making it easier to do business in the City. Several new initiatives announced included Minneapolis One Call, an innovative 311 constituent response system and Minneapolis One Stop, which will soon allow citizens to apply for construction permits online. * Doing basic things right. Continue to provide high levels of service on basic city duties like snowplowing and street sweeping and continuing the graffiti removal pilot project. * Aggressively fund bike trails. The budget accelerates the construction of bike trails, including completing six new trails in underserved North, Northeast and Southest Minneapolis. * Move forward planning for a Midtown Streetcar. The region's lack of attainment with federal air quality standards and skyrocketing asthma rates demand the City does all it can to promote transit alternatives. * Forming new parnerships with City kids. The Mayor proposes continuing critical funding for early childhood programs and developing a new partnership with the Minneapolis Public Schools to train City schoolchildren for careers in public service. * Strategic capital investments saving operating funds long-term. The City is replacing street and traffic lights with LED lamps, which will save on both maintenance and replacement costs. * Funding a Problem Properties Task Force. This cross-departmental task force is targeting the City's most troublesome problem properties, which will allow the City to significantly reduce time between inspections of licensed properties. The 2005 City budget submitted by Mayor Rybak totals $1.24 billion. Twenty-eight percent of that total ($330 million) is discretionary revenue, supported by the property tax and state-funded Local Government Aid. This is the fifth budget the Mayor has delivered in three years in office. The powerpoint slide show the Mayor presented this afternoon is available at www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/mayor/speeches/budget-address-2005.asp#TopOfPag e. A complete copy of the Mayor's proposed 2004 budget will be available next week on the City's website at www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us <http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/> . Laura Sether Office of Mayor Rybak Standish-Ericsson REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait.
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