Mayor Carter Issues Line-Item Vetoes to City Council’s Adopted 2025 Budget

SAINT PAUL-Mayor Melvin Carter issued a rare line-item vetoto the City Council's adopted 2025 budget on Wednesday afternoon.

Vetoing $1.8 million for City Council Office Redesign to Prioritize Funding for Public Safety

The Mayorhas repeatedly noted that the City Council's $1.2 million cut in police funding arrived unexpectedly and without a plan or recommendation on how those cuts might be safely absorbed. While City Council documents specify the reductions are intended to be applied to "non-emergency police overtime," the Mayor's veto letter identifies primary drivers of such expenses as essential and required tasks, such as back-filling patrol shifts for officers away on military or medical leave, pursuing time-sensitive investigations, and testifying in criminal trials. Mayor Carter wrote: "As these are essential and required services, this reduction cannot be realized as actual savings."

Preserving Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity Director

The Mayoralso vetoed the City Council's planned elimination of the director of the city's Department of Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity, a position required by Saint Paul's Home Rule City Charter. While the City Council originally identified that position as one with an extended vacancy-and for which no hiring process has yet commenced-the City Charter identifies the City Council as responsible for initiating such a search. Mayor Carter has asked the City Council Leadership Team to commence that hiring process as quickly as possible but has yet to hear back. Three additional line itemvetoes of new proposed spending allow for the adding back of the Human Rights Director.

New Hiring and Contracting Freeze

Noting that the City's Office of Financial Services has identified $2.4 million in unattainable savings used to finance core city operations, Mayor Carter highlighted the line-item vetoes as essential to addressing immediate issues and acknowledged significant ongoing operational challenges for city presented by the remaining unaddressed deficiencies unaddressed in the City Council's adopted budget.

Accordingly, the Mayor noted that he has directed city department leaders to prepare for an immediate freeze of new hiring and contracted expenses across every city function, including new spending planned for 2025, which will likely remain in effect until final determination has been made on a full set of service reductions necessary to meet the bottom lines in the City Council's adopted budget.

Throughout the budget negotiation process with the City Council, the Mayor was focused on the need to strike a balance between lowering the burden on taxpayers and maintaining vital city services.

"I acknowledge and share your alarm about the squeeze residential property taxpayers are feeling between rising residential values and decreasing values for apartment and office buildings," Mayor Carter said in his letter. "We cannot cut our way out of these cycles; the fact that this challenge is not unique to our city only underscores our urgent need to invest. This same concern drives my conviction that right now is a poor time to disinvest in public safety, downtown revitalization, and public infrastructure."

Legal Deadline for 2025 Budget

As the legal deadline for final decisions pertaining to next year's budget is established by City Charter, Sec 10.06 and was as 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, December 18, 2024, the Mayor also noted in his veto letter that the City Council has effectively run out the clock on its own ability to cure these deficiencies, leaving administrative action as the only remaining option. While the Council has scheduled a special meeting to consider an override at 4pm today, the City Attorney's Office has advised them that such action after the legal deadline would lack the force of law.

Apart from the line-item vetoes issued in the letter, the Mayorsigned the 2025 budget, which includes the 5.9% property tax levy increase adopted by the City Council.

Read Mayor Carter's full December 18 line-item veto letteras filed with the City Clerk, transmitted to the City Council, and posted on the public record with Resolution #RES 24-1763. This is only the third time Mayor Carter has issued a veto in his seven years serving as mayor of Saint Paul.

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