Mpls. ponders best way to spend extra $6M

The Minneapolis City Council's budget committee will vote Monday on a proposal that allocates nearly $6 million that city departments didn't spend last year.

Committee chair Betsy Hodges says it's not unusual for departments to under-spend their budgets, but she says there isn't usually this much money left over. She credits city employees for finding more efficient ways to work.

Hodges says the city's Finance department has a list of recommendations on what to do with the unspent money.

"Some of the recommendations include one-time projects that will increase efficiencies in departments even further. Certain software updates, for example. One-time projects. I mean, the cardinal rule of this is these are one-time dollars, they are not on-going dollars. So you want to use one-time dollars for one-time expenses," she said.

Hodges says the city may also use some of the money to help reduce next year's property tax levy.