Board of estimate

Continuing a conversation with city council member for District 7, Gary Padesky.

And we're going to talk a little bit now about, uh, the Board of Estimates meeting that happened last night.

Talking a little bit about, uh, the, the city budget and, um, the members, uh, were recommending that, um, just a, a slight raise in tax ...

Well, there were a couple of proposals that were, uh, discussed last night, and one was, uh, using some of the, the budget reserve to make up for about a $680,000 shortfall, uh, in the budget.

Or I guess approved, and correct me if I'm wrong, was, uh, to, uh, slightly raise property taxes.

Right.

Um, [coughs] I'm not on the Board of Estimates, but I was there to listen and learn.

And, um, uh, that's just ...

You know, get a couple of lawyers to look over this stuff." And I think they, they're, what they're, uh, paying for is to at least argue this first motion to dismiss.

The funding, by the way, passed the vote at the Board of Estimates, was, or Board of Public Works I should say, was two to nothing.

So it was Brooke Lierman, uh, the, uh, comptroller, and the Treasurer Derek Davis voting in favor of it.

The lieutenant governor was filling in for the governor.

New York City is when New York City consolidates, there is this deal made, much like the Senate and the Electoral College when the states get together, that because smaller boroughs might worry about being outvoted by bigger boroughs, there should be some system of government that equally weights each borough, regardless of how many people live there.

And in New York, the version of the Senate is called the Board of Estimate.

And it's the Board of Estimate basically holds the most power in city government after the mayor.

People say the city council is like a rubber stamp, except that at least a rubber stamp leaves an impression.

Like it really just like mayor board of estimate, board of estimate, like approves the budget, like handles contracting land use issues.

And every borough president sits on the board of estimate and has an equal vote.

That is the compromise that allows the boroughs to function in relative unity.

until the 1980s, when a lawyer from the New York Civil Liberties Union is like, this seems unconstitutional on the basis of Baker versus Carr and one person, one vote and brings a lawsuit against the Board of Estimate that is like about the Board of Estimate, but like actually about Staten Island, because the whole point of it is like Staten Island is the smallest borough and they have an equal say in these very crucial matters of city governance to Brooklyn.

And so for the last sixty some years, the comptroller now doesn't have a role in the budget process.

A way the comptroller used to have a meaningful consequential role is the comptroller literally wrote the budget, the, like, the draft budget that was gonna go to the council, but before it went to the council, it had to be approved by the Board of Estimates, which is the five-person body where the mayor has three votes on the five-person body.

So the mayor controls the Board of Estimates, and the mayor and the comptroller had to work things out so that there was a budget that they both agreed on 'cause the comptroller wrote it, but the mayor had to sign off on it.

And then what they collectively as the executive branch agreed on, that went to the city council then to be approved.

I love your line that you've-- I've heard you say it a couple times of, we actually have a super strong BOE system.

And on Taxpayers' Night, the-- which is the opportunity, it's the public hearing where, you know, anybody who wants to can come down and say, "This is what I think your priority should be," as you go through the budget season.

The tenor of Taxpayers' Night has changed dramatically in the last four years since of the charter amendment change that allows the city council to move money around in the budget.

For the entire time I was on the city council or working for the city council, I would regularly tell my community folks, "If you wanna get your message across, you really need to come to the Board of Estimates Taxpayers' Night, where the mayor is, and make your point to the mayor, and try to get the mayor to change the budget that they send to the city council." Because while theoretically things could change between the time it comes to the council and the council passing it, it was harder because you used to have to convince the mayor to put in a supplemental appropriation to put more money somewhere else, and that would be in return for whatever cuts or changes the council was together on to fund something new.

Today's episode is called Property Tax Shock Could Be Ahead for Minneapolis Residents.

Subtitle is Unable to Reach an Agreement, the Board of Estimate and Taxation Approve the Maximum Levy for Both the City and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board.

And then I have a picture here I took because I actually showed up at the meeting today.

And it shows the five counselors that were present at the time.

Tom Olson, Eric Harris Bernstein, Steve Brandt, Elliot Payne, Aisha Chugtai with the mayor showing up slightly after the photo was taken.

Minneapolis residents may want to start saving now for next year's property taxes.

The Board of Estimate and Taxation met Tuesday afternoon and with no compromise reached since its last meeting, the Board voted 4-2 to approve a maximum city levy increase of 11.3% along with the full 5.86% increase sought by the Park Board.

Combined, the maximum levy could exceed 11.7%.

If the majority of the affected, and they never say what exactly is a majority, affected property owners protest the paving, the proposal will be withdrawn.

The cost of this project will be shared with by the Department of Transportation and abutting property owners in accordance with the cost schedule approved by the Board of Estimates.

The cost to you for this work will be $471.04. You may pay your share in a single payment or you may- It's

your fair share, Alex.

Minneapolis tax board leaders say police spending is driving a large share of the city's proposed property tax increase and raising concerns about oversight.

The Minneapolis Board of Estimate and Taxation is warning the city's police spending could add pressure on taxpayers and the city's financial health.

Under, uh, Mayor Jacob Frey's proposal, the police department accounts for about a third of next year's property tax increase, according to board Vice President Eric Bernstein.

Bernstein, along with Board of Estimate and Taxation President Steve Brandt, and Minneapolis Parks and Rec Board President Tom Olson, sent a letter to the mayor and city council leadership late last week saying police spending oversight has failed, and called the department's costs unsustainable.