Last year I wrote a big piece about property taxes and how they’re calculated and how they interact and compare with things like income tax, property values, my personal budget, and the city budget. A lot of people told me it was very helpful to them in understanding how money moves around them in the city and their lives so I’m going to do it again with this year’s numbers.

So we’re going to do some level setting about the tax levy and the budget this year.

The City’s entire proposed budget from the Mayor this year is $890,000,000.

The City’s proposed tax levy is $230,000,000. That means the City can collect $230,000,000 in property taxes to apply to the $890,000,000 total budget. The levy is about a quarter portion of our total $890,000,000 budget in the way that my legs are about a quarter portion of my body.

“Well where the hell does the rest of the money come from then?!”: We chase all kinds of money and do all kinds of work at the City. Our least favorite way to pay for things is with your tax money, that’s why we chase all the other money and charge fees for services.

Levy & Budget: two different things, but one fits into the other. Really important to understand because we’re about to start talking about the tax levy and the percentage it is being raised.

There is one more concept to introduce before talking about raising the tax levy though. The Budget Gap. A budget gap occurs every year because the prices of things rise year over year. That means that in order to do all the things the City did the year before the City has to pay more money. Going from 2025 to 2026, in order for Saint Paul to provide all the same services, we would have to come up with $23,000,000 more dollars because of inflation and contract obligations and other smaller factors. Get your calculator, we’re going to connect some pieces.

The Mayor has proposed to raise the tax levy by 5.3%. 5.3% of $230,000,000 is about $12,000,000.

The City has a budget gap of $23,000,000. Take $23,000,000 subtract $12,000,000 and we still have an outstanding budget gap of $11,000,000!

“But wait!” you cry out, “If we aren’t covering our budget gap to maintain services does that mean Melvin’s budget proposal is actually proposing a net cut to the City’s obligations?” Yes! You’re so smart I could vomit. It’s a small but real cut. $11,000,000 is 1.2% of the total $890,000,000. But this is another point worth belaboring:

The Mayor’s original budget proposal was a cut overall.

Jesus. We are 500 words into this and I haven’t even gotten to the Council.

The Mayor may propose the budget, but in Saint Paul it’s the City Council who actually possesses the power to set the budget. We on the Council negotiate amongst ourselves and propose a counter or amendments to the Mayor’s budget. These can be small tweaks, or they can be huge defiant swings from the Mayor’s original vision! (There are never defiant swings.)

This year the Council budget proposal was extremely tame. We restored cuts made by the Mayor by diving for spare change in the couch cushions and we scrounged for scraps to cover a massive overspend by the Police Budget, which is something they do every year and I will try to be more cognizant of that next year far earlier in the budget. All in all Council adjustments totaled less than $20,000,000.

“So you’re telling me that all the drama on Facebook, all the drama in the Paper? It’s about a 2.2% adjustment of the budget?” Yep! You got it. Please put the gun down.

“But my neighbor told me that his taxes went up 50%!” They probably did! But you should ask him how much his property’s VALUE went up in the same time period. They probably made a lot more money on that house than what they’re going to be paying in taxes.

“But property value doesn’t count! He won’t realize that gain until he sells the house!” Well that’s the Faustian bargain we all signed when we purchased property. It’s an investment. Ask a renter how the finances all stack up and you’re going to become very deeply comforted by that Unrealized Gain. And can we be honest with each other? Would you be mad if your property value went down? You’d be furious. It’s an investment.

Short Version: The City is getting a net cut this year. This is not a fun budget, it is a FUNctional budget. If you wanted more budget or less budget we can all come together and agree: We didn’t get what we wanted.

Now it’s time for Tom’s Personal Tax Numbers. This is good stuff so really dial in here. I own a home that is pretty much bang on the average home value for Saint Paul so it’s a pretty useful barometer.

My 2025 city taxes were $1,138.04. Add on that 5.3% from the Mayor’s proposal. My 2026 city taxes could be as high as $1,253.58

My Total Property Taxes, which is City, County, and School property taxes all added up, were $3947.90 in 2025 and could be as high as $4,248.00 in 2026.

Now hold onto your asses because we also passed a tax increase via school referendum at the ballot box and that became true after I got my tax statement so let’s add $300 to my total because we love our children, bringing it to $4,548.00 in 2026. We had to do that because we put the wife of the guy who owns the WWE in charge of the federal Department of Education. As a nation we are a desperately stupid people.

Hidden around my property taxes is a tax break from the state that eases taxes on Homesteaded Properties that are worth less than $500,000. A little treat for folks like me without a bunch of money and property.

My 2025 market value was $263,300 and increased to my 2025 market value of $278,900. A gain of about 5.9% or $15,600. Which is a fuckload more than $4,548.00; a fuckload specifically being a profit of $11,052, for just living in my home. Thanks Capitalism! I’m sure there aren’t any obscured negative externalities hidden in that number!

Jenn and I’s yearly household income is probably in the $120,000 range if I remember last year’s taxes, meaning that the city’s tax of $1,253.58 is nearly perfectly 1% of my yearly income. The County and School District get added onto that and now we’re hitting 3.75% of my yearly income.

The State of Minnesota applies an income tax of 6.8% to most of my income. That costs me a bit less than twice City, County, and School combined!

The Federal Government, the one that buys missiles to kill children on the other side of the globe for no productive purpose to my life except to damn my immortal soul to Perdition, applies an income tax of 12% for most of my income but the last portion I’m subject to a 22% bracket! That costs me THREE times what City, County, and School cost me if I’m being conservative with the numbers. Whoa!

This conversation is important but having a productive conversation requires a bit more study and a bit more honesty than most people are willing to put in. It’s a frustrating time of year.

There’s a lot of opinion I possess and nuance I probably should have included that I did not include. I encourage you to read too deeply into every word and omission. Keen eyed readers will be annoyed that I did not include our ward office’s specific position on tax levy proposals here, that’s because our positions changed and moved so many different times during negotiations as new information and constraints were revealed that those positions are effectively meaningless! In the end our budget position could be crassly boiled down to “Repair the hole created by Police Overspend.”

Also all of the above math was made rounder and squishier for readability’s sake. If you want the hard numbers go read the Mayor’s proposed budget. If I can do it, you can too!