MINNEAPOLIS — St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her proposed reducing the number of vacant positions in the police department in her 2027 budget address, cuts that come in the wake of the police chief accusing Her of sexualizing officers.

Along with a property tax increase and other budget cuts, Her proposed the police department will receive funding for four fewer commanders and seven fewer sergeants next year. The budget aims to cut vacant positions, but an internal email to police said the cuts could necessitate demotions for the first time in 20 years.

Her’s proposal brings down the budgeted count of sworn officers from 616 to 605. The actual number of sworn officers today is 564, according to the police department. When positions are not filled, the department is able to use the money for other needs.

“The City has not employed more than 600 sworn officers in many years,” Her said in her budget address Thursday.

In an email to the police department on Thursday afternoon, Chief Axel Henry said he was tasked with finding $4.9 million in cuts. Salaries and benefits make up over 90% of the department’s budget, Henry said in the email, so it would have been nearly impossible to make budget cuts without also cutting positions.

Henry wrote the reductions would come through “attrition and possible demotions.”

“If demotions become necessary, all demoted employees will remain employed and demoted employees will have reinstatement rights,” Henry explained. Because of the possibility of demotions, there will be no sergeants’ exams in 2026, Henry said, though he expected to hold the exams next spring.

Despite the cuts, the overall police budget will increase by almost $5 million this year, with most of the costs coming from contractual raises for remaining officers.

Last month, allegations became public that Her superimposed the face of a police officer onto a meme about “weinering” in relation to a hot dog gathering with top brass in the department; initiated a conversation about her breasts and the breasts of a deputy chief in the police locker room; made performative sexualized noises while working out; pasted images of herself over photographs of high-ranking officers in department headquarters; superimposed the faces of some police officers, including Henry, onto the bodies of UFC fighters; and sent sexualized communications and made unwanted physical contact directed at Henry.

Her has said that some of her “attempts at humor” fell flat, but she also said the jokes reflected her belief that the police force had welcomed her into their circle and then manipulated that trust. An investigation is still underway into the allegations. Some questioned the connection between the investigation into the allegations ahead of Her’s scrutiny of the police budget.

Her made no mention of the allegations in her budget address Thursday at Allianz Field, and didn’t take any questions before leaving.

Asked about his relationship with the mayor’s office, Henry was brief. “Communication’s wide open, everything’s good,” he said Thursday.

Henry’s email to the department told officers that the mayor asked all city departments to make difficult choices.

“This is a big challenge, but it is a burden being absorbed by every aspect of the city’s services,” he wrote. “I ask you to stay optimistic and continue to provide the great service we are known for. None of these choices are ideal but our mayor recognizes we can’t simply avoid them and push the hard financial choices into the future.”

Her’s budget proposal includes a 6.8% increase to the levy, which translates to a $58 annual increase in city taxes for the owner of a median-value $290,000 home.

“These are difficult choices, but they are responsible choices,” Her said Thursday.

While steeper than last year’s 5.3% increase, St. Paulites are looking at a smaller increase than the 11.3% property tax hike Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey proposed this week — the biggest property tax increase in Minneapolis in at least 26 years.

In St. Paul, the elimination of the police department’s vacant jobs, and two other vacant jobs for civilian employees, add up to $2.7 million in savings for the department.

The budget for the chief’s office would be cut nearly $100,000 under Her’s proposal, according to budget documents, after receiving a $500,000 increase in the 2026 budget.

Her’s proposal adds $2 million for police academies and expenses such as uniforms for trainees.

Last year’s budget cut 16 vacant positions from the police department, but just three of those were positions for sworn officers, including one commander position. The 2026 budget also cut seven community service officers, a records official and two data release specialists.

Carter’s last budget also added $815,000 to the department’s overtime budget for 2026, after the police overspent the overtime budget by $1.5 million in 2025.

The overspending of the overtime budget has become a perennial sore point for the City Council, which has been asking for regular overtime reports since early 2025, and even made some funding in that year’s budget conditional on receiving those reports.

Overtime has risen because of understaffing in the department, but also because of increasingly-frequent protests at the State Capitol — which St. Paul police are responsible for securing. In 2025, St. Paul police spent approximately $1.5 million guarding demonstrations at the capitol. Her’s budget proposal includes $600,000 for police overtime for protests and other special events.

The 2027 police budget also has to absorb the loss of one-time state funding that underwrote the successful non-fatal shooting unit, and a federal grant that funded four patrol officers’ salaries.

Her said she intends to continue the unit by using money from the city’s general fund, and is also shifting the formerly federally-funded jobs to the general fund, at a cost of nearly $600,000 to the city.

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