How the Levy Landed: Comparing Frey's Ask to the Final Number

Mayor Jacob Frey opened the 2026 Minneapolis budget in August 2025 by asking for a 7.8% property-tax levy increase. The City Council closed it on Dec. 9, 2025, by adopting 8% — the maximum the Board of Estimate and Taxation had set as a ceiling in September. The gap between those two numbers is the clearest measure of what changed between proposal and adoption.

In his Aug. 13, 2025 budget address, Frey proposed a roughly $2 billion budget. His administration said the 7.8% figure was already trimmed from the roughly 13% increase that maintaining current service levels would have required, achieved through about $23 million in cuts and savings — among them ending police "double-time" overtime.

The council did not simply ratify that number. Over the fall it worked through committee markup and adopted the budget with amendments, ultimately landing on an 8% levy rather than the mayor's 7.8%. The council also rejected proposed cuts that would have eliminated up to eight positions in the mayor's office. The final package was announced jointly by Frey and Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai of Ward 10, who said the council wanted departments to understand that "their budgets are not suggestions".

The prior year offered a sharper contrast. The 2025 budget passed only after the council overrode Frey's veto. The 2026 process replaced that confrontation with a negotiated agreement — a shift that followed the 2025 election, after which the council no longer held a veto-proof majority.

For Lowry Hill and the lakes neighborhoods, the levy is the bottom line: it sets the city portion of the property-tax bill, which appears alongside the Park Board, Hennepin County and school levies on the same Hennepin County statement. Under the adopted plan, the owner of a median-value $333,000 home would pay $2,272 in city property taxes in 2026, an increase of $242.

Residents can read both Frey's proposed budget and the adopted version at minneapolismn.gov/government/budget and see the effect on their own parcel on their county tax statement. The budget is most open to influence in the months between the August address and the December vote, when proposals move through council committees.