``A low-budget campaign for an overbudget city.’’
Jim Meyer for Budgetary Economic Stability - Ward 11
A low-budget campaign for an overbudget city. But the only endorsement I really need is yours.’’
Are you concerned that local taxes are up while federal support will vanish? That downtown and surrounding business has flattened as an AI revolution and an economic recession loom? That crime and other livability challenges persist while city leaders remain gridlocked and hostile?
Then you may be a supporter of Jim Meyer, LPN for Minneapolis City Council Ward 11.
I’m not a career politician nor a major-party insider, just a 50-year resident of Ward 11 and a re-trained nightshift Licensed Practical Nurse concerned for our city. I've been a union chief steward and treasurer. I’m on the Minneapolis Advisory Community on Aging and served on the city’s first Racial Equity Advisory in 2018. Maybe we've met at a city-led info session, or you’ve seen me in a downpour dam busting drains on Chicago Avenue.
But seriously, many believe our city is at a fiscal breaking point. Yet whether it’s at candidate forums or the DFL convention, cost-cutting or right-sizing is almost unmentioned, as if that's an unpopular idea among voters. Sometimes it seems our leaders are on an island downtown, so I’m launching this independent campaign to hear from neighbors citywide who are also alarmed, fed up, or feel left out of the governmental and political process.
Ten percent annual tax increases are totally unsustainable. We need more focus on core service and attracting big and small businesses to avoid a commercial meltdown. I’m sad to say there are many crying human needs, so we demand smart, strong intergovernmental relations for the greatest return on where we spend your money.
By some counts the Minneapolis budget has nearly doubled since 2005 and staffing is up 10-15% since the 2010 cutbacks. Has city service improved? Do you trust either our crime-prevention systems or our most outspoken MPD critics? Have you seen water lines bursting or streets caved into sinkholes? Many favorite restaurants or legacy corporations have closed in the past year, some fleeing to nearby suburbs due to harmful anti-business attitudes and relentless MPD hostility by some in city hall.
I know I’m late to the Ward 11 race, but I couldn't stand by this time and settle for the same again. If we turn down the heat and hostility and deal in shared facts, we can steer the city into shape. As I work on my full campaign launch this month, please be in touch at ElectJimMeyer@gmail.com with support or suggestions (and the inevitable hate mail or social-media slime). Eventually, I hope you’ll rank me #1 on November 4 because . . .
Jim Meyer is B.E.St for Ward 11 in Minneapolis
P.O. Box 19106 Minneapolis, Mn., 55419
For more details on my planks and priorities, see www.electjimmeyer.com.
And for a few topical essays, reaction pieces or other recommended articles, see Jim’s Substack | Jim Meyer, LPN | Substack