October 9, 2026 Budget Committee

The Minneapolis City Budget Committee met on October 9, 2026, to review the mayor’s recommended 2027 budgets for the Mayor’s Office, Office of City Auditor, and legislative department/Office of City Clerk. The Mayor’s Office reported a slight budget increase driven mainly by internal service charges and a proposed reduction of one FTE. The City Auditor reported a proposed net budget decrease of $125,000 and two FTE reductions; the proposal would nearly eliminate its $105,000 professional-services allowance and reduce training funds, limiting its ability to obtain specialized outside expertise, including for technical IT audits. The committee discussed the risks to audit capacity and independence, but no budget votes or contract awards were taken.

The legislative department described a proposed 21% budget reduction, including two council-office positions (about $259,000), six clerk’s-office positions, and $337,000 less for contractual services in legislative support, operations, and records management. The clerk’s office also cited a roughly $5.16 million year-over-year decrease in 2027 spending, largely reflecting the non-election-year cycle. Officials discussed a proposed approximately $1 million for election infrastructure and annual requirements, while warning that election management software modernization, specialized ballot printing/inserting equipment, and a mobile voting trailer were important needs; the presentation indicated requested funding for necessary purchases was not included. The records division anticipates increased vendor costs to move, destroy, and store records as a warehouse is decommissioned. Existing contracts discussed included real-time captioning and CivicPlus, and shared data-review services such as Everlaw; no new procurements were approved. The committee directed that the presentations be filed and then adjourned.