Minneapolis neighborhoods are making an end run at the State Capitol to try to regain $12.7 million in funds frozen in December by the City Council in a surprise move aimed at future property tax relief.
State Sen. Ken Kelash, DFL-Minneapolis, this week introduced a bill to thaw that freeze and keep the governing board over neighborhood money in place. Kelash also chairs that joint powers board, which oversees the Neighborhood Revitalization Program. NRP allows neighborhoods to fund priorities they choose.
The City Council already is moving to release about $2.7 million of that money; Kelash would require the release of the rest, plus interest and loan payments made by residents on NRP home loan programs. That would stay in place until the program's balance drops below $3 million. He also would mandate that the NRP board stay in place until that point, rather than expiring as scheduled on Dec. 31.
City officials said Tuesday that absent Kelash's proposal, they think they can consolidate NRP and the city's less-funded successor program without resorting to legislation. Council Member Elizabeth Glidden, the council's legislative chair, said she thinks the legislation isn't needed.
Kelash said his proposal is needed because the freeze was imposed at a time when neighborhoods had spent the money at different rates, leaving some losing more money than others. He said it could also avoid a threatened legal challenge by activists to the council freeze.
"It just lets the program end on the terms it started with," he said, citing the city's commitment, as recently as last summer, to full NRP funding. "There's a lack of trust with how the city is going to manage the funds."
The council suddenly froze the NRP money to use it to finance its new neighborhood programs in 2012 and 2013. It wants to use money previously earmarked for neighborhoods to buffer property tax hikes. That decision followed an outpouring of taxpayer anger over double-digit property tax increases in 2011.
Steve Brandt • 612-673-4438
