Minneapolis Warns Employees of Possible Cuts

February 18, 2010 at 4:56 am | Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

The following is the text of an e-mail sent out to employees of the City of Minneapolis by Mayor R.T. Rybak and City Council President Barbara Johnson on Tuesday, February 16, 2010:

To all City of Minneapolis Employees,

As you have probably heard, yesterday Governor Tim Pawlenty released his proposal to close a $1.2-billion deficit in the state’s budget. His proposal includes about $250 million in cuts to communities throughout the state.

Governor Pawlenty’s proposal would take another $29 million out of Minneapolis’ 2010 budget. As you may recall, last year Governor Pawlenty already cut funding to Minneapolis’ 2010 budget by $21 million, but the $29-million cut that he proposed yesterday comes on top of that. Combined, those $50 million in cuts represent a 56% cut in the Local Government Aid that Minneapolis was supposed to receive from the State in 2010.

We are so proud of the work each of our City employees does every day to keep the people of Minneapolis safe, our neighborhoods thriving and our city clean and livable. We have all done so much to weather these tough economic times. We have found new, innovative ways to provide core services.

As Minneapolis’ elected leadership, the last thing we want to do is cut core city services. Through each of the State’s budget cuts to Minneapolis we have done whatever we can to maintain our basic city services.

However, the Governor’s current proposal would be extremely damaging to the City, and comes at a time when we have already been cutting our services to the bone.

We are proud of the work we have done as a City to streamline City services, find efficiencies and eliminate more than $116 million in debt. During that time the State’s spending has increased at a far greater rate than the City’s.

At this point we do not know how the State Legislature will approach the Governor’s proposal to fix the Minnesota’s budget crisis and what cuts the City of Minneapolis may actually realize. However, we have learned from experience how important it is to act quickly to minimize the impact later on.

For this reason, the Mayor’s office has begun work to develop a proposal to the City Council for a supplemental 2010 budget. This process is at its earliest stages, and we will provide you with updates along the way.

Thank you in advance for working with us to help deal with these State cuts. We know the cuts we need to make will be significant, and we want you to be a part of the process as we move forward. Now more than ever we need to be innovative and bring our best ideas to the table.

Mayor R.T. Rybak

Council President Barbara Johnson