PROPERTY TAXES

My number one issue is property taxes because I want to be able to afford to live in Minneapolis. Many of my neighbors are also concerned that they may have to move out of the city because it’s too expensive and that is why they have encouraged me to run for city council.

The current city council’s plan is to continue to raise our taxes 8% a year as far out as their projections go. That means our property taxes will double in about 9 years. All this after raising property taxes 40% over the last five years. And what they don’t mention is that they are not even factoring in their largest liability, the city pension funds. Adding in this enormous debt could mean that our taxes will double in as little as 4 years. And it will be even worse for Ward 13 because southwest Minneapolis residents already pay more because the city council thinks they can afford it.

I will start by working to get our budget under control. There is no reason the city budget should automatically go up 8% a year. When questioned about the need for these tax increases their response is a threat to cut our basic services. They are taking our money in order to expand the scope and control of the city government. This current city council, and Ward 13’s Betsy Hodges is right in there with the rest of them, are buying properties all over the city. Why should the city own any private homes? And who is getting the lucrative development contracts that the city is then able to award? When government grows, taking an ever increasing share of what we produce, their control over our lives also increases through regulations, inspections, and confiscatory fees.

The city council’s use Tax Increment Financing (TIF), the system by which taxes are set aside for 20 or 30 years into a special fund which the council controls and can spend as they wish (at least that is the way they have structured it to work) to fund development. When the bonds are about to come due and that tax revenue is to begin to flow into the general tax fund to relieve property taxes, the council rolls them over by renewing the bonds and the cycle of unregulated ‘development’ money starts all over. The Star Tribune recently reported that the citizens of Minneapolis would have seen as much as a 15% cut in our property taxes if the council had not renewed the Target Center TIF bonds.

I am the only candidate running for city council who is not afraid to take on the issue of unfunded pension debt by suggesting that the city file for bankruptcy which would force the restructuring of this debt which will never be met in its current form. This is what businesses do every day and emerge from the procedure leaner, focused on the correct priorities, and in a more sound financial condition.
Betsy Hodges’ solution is to try to get the state to take over the pensions funds. This will not happen and even if it did, the city must continue to fund the debt in the future. What is called for is bold action. We need to stop the runaway expansion of government. We need to prioritize the duties of city government, which does not belong in the mortgage business, money lending services, nor cradle to grave social services which are bankrupting its citizens. I am not afraid to take on the hard choices of fiscal responsibility that will restore the public trust which has been squandered by decades of poor management and elitism.

If you elect me as councilperson for Ward 13 you will have at least one person on the city council who is not an echo for the mayor.