Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai and Mayor Jacob Frey jointly announced the 2026 budget agreement that held the city's property-tax levy flat.

Minneapolis adopted its roughly $2 billion 2026 budget in December 2025 in an 11-0 vote, with two members abstaining, after Mayor Jacob Frey and City Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai announced a negotiated deal that ended weeks of budget talks. Chughtai, who represents Ward 10 and chaired the council's Budget Committee, was the council's lead negotiator with the Frey administration.
The headline result was that the agreement avoided any increase to the city's property-tax levy and averted layoffs of frontline and union-represented workers, redirecting money toward priorities residents raised at public hearings. That was a notable retreat from where the cycle began: Frey's August 2025 proposal had paired a 7.8% levy increase with cuts, including an end to police "double-time" overtime, to hold the increase below a projected higher figure.
The deal was negotiated chiefly between the Frey administration, Chughtai and Council Member Jeremiah Ellison. Council Member Robin Wonsley criticized the process, calling the late amendments a "backroom deal" and faulting its transparency.
The contrast with the prior year was sharp. The 2025 budget passed only after the council overrode Frey's veto. The 2026 budget, by contrast, was announced as a joint agreement, a shift that followed the 2025 election and the loss of a veto-proof council majority.
For Lowry Hill and the lakes neighborhoods, the practical effect is that the city's portion of the property-tax bill is not rising for 2026, though the county, school and park levies appear separately on the same Hennepin County statement and follow their own schedules. Residents can read the adopted budget on the city's budget page and see the line-by-line breakdown on their county tax statement.

Hennepin County is expected to bring its final design for rebuilding Lyndale Avenue South to the Minneapolis City Council this month, after a June 1 public meeting where Uptown business owners and cyclists clashed over a plan that adds a bikeway and cuts about a quarter of on-street parking.

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The Lowry Hill Neighborhood Association board meets the first Tuesday of each month, 7 to 9 p.m., at the Searle Mansion, 1915 Logan Ave. S., where parks requests, traffic concerns and land-use notices get aired.

For the first time in years, the Hennepin Avenue corridor through Uptown heads into summer without an active construction zone, the rebuilt street now served by the METRO E Line that began carrying riders in December.