Star Tribune
Minneapolis City Council approves $1.8 billion budget for 2024
The Minneapolis City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a roughly $1.8 billion taxing-and-spending plan for next year that prioritizes public safety — both traditional policing and alternatives — as well as responses to climate change.
Despite frequently splitting on controversial matters, all 13 council members last week coalesced behind the budget after making dozens of changes around the edges in consultation with Mayor Jacob Frey, who has said he was “optimistic” about signing it.
Under the plan, the city would increase the total amount of money raised from property taxes by 6.2%. The owner of a $331,000 home in Minneapolis would see an increase ranging from $150 to $160 in property taxes.
That figure would include a resurrected tax by the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority that would cost the owner of the same home about $21 a year. That money would add $4 million annually to the MPHA, which is grappling with a $229 million backlog of repairs.
City residents and businesses would pay in other ways for some aspects of the plan. A hike in electricity and natural gas fees, to pay for parts of the city’s climate response plan, would cost residents and businesses an estimated $8 to $12 annually. That would generate an estimated $10 million annually, with about half of that money in the first year targeted at weatherizing buildings, starting with insulating attics and walls, and plugging drafts in homes.
And water bills would increase about 16 cents a month to evaluate the state of stormwater systems on park district land.
Other taxing bodies, such as Hennepin County and Minneapolis Public Schools, set their property-tax-and-spending plans independently of the city.
The council’s vote was expected to follow Tuesday’s final public hearing on the budget proposal. Inside the third floor of City Hall, scores of people packed an overflow room and snaked through the hallways, with many signing up to speak publicly on a panoply of issues.
Among them were perhaps 60 unionized city public works employees who carried a refrain that they were underpaid and understaffed. Dozens of people carried signs against a potential clearing of a homeless encampment that one speaker described as a “healing space” to help Indigenous people with addiction. A group of American Indian activists sang to a beating drum outside the packed council chambers later chanting “Let us in!” One woman put her phone on speaker while she called a homeless hotline to illustrate the shortage of beds in shelters.
Some spoke in favor of spending more money to recruit police officers, drawing both cheers and jeers from those outside. One man who said he was mugged and beaten by a group of men called alternatives to traditional policing “naive.”
A woman spoke out against infrastructure that favors bicycles over parking, while a man spoke in favor of that idea. One man praised council members for coming together over the budget.
Public safety
The budget funds a police force of 731 sworn officers — the amount required by the city’s charter. Officer ranks have continued to shrink, with roughly 580 on the force as of mid-November. It’s hardly assured that those empty slots will be filled; the current budget also funded those positions.
The plan also allots $16 million next year for dozens of hires to comply with a state court settlement and anticipated federal consent decree to change the culture of the Police Department, including rooting out its history of racist practices.
The budget also funds a number of public safety measures that fall outside traditional policing, including $3 million to pilot unarmed neighborhood “safety ambassadors” in a number of cultural districts and expanding the city’s behavioral crisis response teams — specialists tasked with emergency calls better suited for mental health workers than armed police officers.
Snow removal etc.
Among other budget highlights:
- $595,000 will fund several sidewalk-shoveling pilot programs that aim to clear snow from priority pedestrian areas and focus on property owners who repeatedly fail to shovel their sidewalks, starting next fall.
- The city’s Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs would receive $150,000 for an additional employee to focus on needs of refugees newly arriving in Minneapolis.
- The Racial Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Department would get a $500,000 boost for the city’s truth and reconciliation process.
Northern State 35, Concordia (St. Paul) 34: Wyatt Block’s 2-yard TD run and the PAT with 10 seconds remaining lifted the Wolves past the host Golden Bears. Block’s touchdown capped an 11-play, 72-yard drive by the Wolves, who trailed 24-7 in the second quarter. Jeff Isotalo-McGuire’s 34-yard field goal with three minutes, 32 seconds remaining gave the Golden Bears a 34-28 lead.
Winona State 31, Bemidji State 28: Cade Stenstrom rushed for two TDs and passed for 150 yards and a TD to help the host Warriors outlast the Beavers. Stenstrom’s 1-yard TD run and the PAT with two minutes, 10 seconds remaining gave the Warriors a 31-21 lead. The Beavers responded with an 11-play, 93-yard drive to pull within 31-28 with 18 seconds remaining but the Warriors recovered the ensuing kickoff.
Div. I-AA
North Dakota State 59, Murray State 6: The top-ranked Bison built a 42-3 lead in the first half and went on to defeat the host Racers in Murray, Ken. CharMar Brown ran for 97 yards and three TDs for the Bison.
South Dakota State 20, South Dakota 17 (OT): Amar Johnson’s 3-yard TD run in overtime lifted the host Jackrabbits to the victory. The Coyotes opened the OT with a 40-yard field goal.
Youngstown State 41, North Dakota 40 (OT): The host Penguins went first in OT and scored and then stopped North Dakota’s two-point conversion to hold on for the victory. The Penguins sent the game into OT on a 35-yard field goal with 12 seconds remaining.
Div. III
Augsburg 35, St. Olaf 34 (OT): The host Auggies stopped a two-point conversion in overtime to outlast the Oles. The Auggies went first in the overtime and scored on a 25-yard pass from Ryan Harvey to Tyrone Wilson. It was Harvey’s fifth TD pass — the fourth to Wilson. After the Auggies’ PAT, the Oles scored on a 25-yard TD pass from Theo Doran to Braden Menz. But the Oles’ pass attempt for the conversion failed.
After splitting their two-game West Coast trip to begin the season, the Wolves improved to 2-1 with a 112-101 win over Toronto in their home opener. It was a wire-to-wire win that featured some strong bursts of play from the Wolves and other times when their decision-making was suspect. But those moments when they were on, specifically the start of the game and most of the third quarter, were enough to carry them against a shorthanded Raptors team that was without RJ Barrett, Bruce Brown and Immanuel Quickley.
Julius Randle had 24 points while Anthony Edwards had 24 on 21 shot attempts. Donte DiVincenzo had 16 off the bench. Nickeil Alexander-Walker left the game in the fourth quarter and did not return, though he was in the bench area for the final minutes after going to the locker room briefly.
The Wolves’ starting lineup had its best stretch of basketball on the season after that unit started off sluggish in the first two games. Mike Conley, who was 3-for-16 to open the year, hit two early threes to set the tone, though Conley would finish 2-for-8.
Donte DiVincenzo replaced him at point guard halfway through the quarter and continued the hot shooting from the point guard slot with three threes of his own. The Wolves forced five Toronto turnovers and had a 32-18 lead after one.
Coach Chris Finch toyed with some different lineup combinations in the first half as he had Conley and DiVincenzo begin the quarter together while having Joe Ingles run the point later in the quarter. It led to an uneven second, and the Wolves led 56-44 at halftime.
But the Wolves played inspired coming out of the break. Jaden McDaniels, who didn’t take a shot in the first half, had nine points in the opening minutes of the third. Edwards hit a pair of threes as they pushed their lead to 22. The Wolves weren’t sharp closing the night, and the Raptors had the game within right inside of two minutes, but the Wolves had built enough of a cushion.
Rudy Gobert. Gobert had 15 points and 13 rebounds and was the beneficiary of some lobs from his teammates like Edwards, Conley, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Joe Ingles. Gobert also finished with four blocks.
Gobert had two blocks on one possession in the fourth quarter that got the crowd off its feet and Gobert pounding his chest. Gobert blocked D.J. Carton and Jamison Battle.
Star Tribune
Trump denigrates Detroit while appealing for votes in a suburb of Michigan’s largest city
NOVI, Mich. — Donald Trump further denigrated Detroit while appealing for votes Saturday in a suburb of the largest city in swing state Michigan.
”I think Detroit and some of our areas makes us a developing nation,” the former president told supporters in Novi. He said people want him to say Detroit is ”great,” but he thinks it ”needs help.”
The Republican nominee for the White House had told an economic group in Detroit earlier this month that the ”whole country will end up being like Detroit” if Democrat Kamala Harris wins the presidency. That comment drew harsh criticism from Democrats who praised the city for its recent drop in crime and growing population.
Trump’s stop in Novi, after an event Friday night in Traverse City, is a sign of Michigan’s importance in the tight race. Harris is scheduled for a rally in Kalamazoo later Saturday with former first lady Michelle Obama on the first day that early in-person voting becomes available across Michigan. More than 1.4 million ballots have already been submitted, representing 20% of registered voters. Trump won the state in 2016, but Democrat Joe Biden carried it four years later.
Michigan is home to major car companies and the nation’s largest concentration of members of the United Auto Workers. It also has a significant Arab American population, and many have been frustrated by the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza after the attack by Hamas against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
During his rally, Trump spotlighted local Muslim and Arab American leaders who joined him on stage. These voters ”could turn the election one way or the other,” Trump said, adding that he was banking on ”overwhelming support” from those voters in Michigan.
“When President Trump was president, it was peace,” said one of those leaders, Mayor Bill Bazzi of Dearborn Heights. ”We didn’t have any issues. There was no wars.”
While Trump is trying to capitalize on the community’s frustration with the Democratic administration, he has a history of policies hostile to this group, including a travel ban targeting Muslim countries while in office and a pledge to expand it to include refugees from Gaza if he wins on Nov. 5.
