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 72% over the last seven years. EVEN WORSE, what they don’t mention is that they are not even factoring in one of their largest liabilities, the city pension funds. According to Ward 13’s current city council person, if you factor in the pension funds, our property taxes will increase at double the rate in the budget. That means our taxes will double in about 4 years and quadruple by 2018. It could be even worse for Ward 13 because the city council thinks we can afford it.
I will start by working to get our budget under control. There is no reason the city budget should go up 8% a year as a starting point. Let’s focus on the basic services: police, fire, water, road repair. The rest is fair game, it has to be if we want to continue to afford to live in the city.
Next, the pension funds must be met head on and we should not assume the state will take them over and we absolutely should not be so foolish as to assume that if the state does take them on that we will not still pay. Our current city council is making these assumptions in their budget. They have to know that even if the state did take them over we would still pay, just like we pay $37 million a year to the state for the teachers pension fund that the state took over a few years back.
I am the only candidate not afraid to take on the pension funds in a meaningful way. They have been poorly negotiated and manipulated by union management for years. We can not afford to live in this city if we don’t take on the union run pension fund liability. Unlike others in this race for city council, I do not owe the union any allegiance. I can take them on by looking at what other cities around the country have done and having the guts to do it.
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.
