Let’s talk municipal budgets for 2027. This year I’m writing earlier than usual so folks have more time to digest the process in real time but it means I won’t have my personal tax numbers to share which I know a lot of people enjoy as a foundation for the conversation. My apologies.

We will start with the numbers and academics and try to gradually transition to the preaching. I make no promises.

THE NUMBERS:

Saint Paul’s entire proposed budget this year will be $887,760,012. That’s almost a cool billion dollars. Our Tax Levy, which is a different thing and the thing that causes your property taxes will be $248,316,456. Your taxes only cover 28% of the entire budget. This is similar to how my legs are only about 28% of my body. The rest of that budget is covered because you are fortunate to live in a city employing 3,000 intelligent, loyal, caring public servants who find money elsewhere and spend your money well. Our city is a miracle and it’s time for you to start acting like it; whoops, we’re not to the preaching yet.

This year Mayor Her has proposed a tax levy increase of 6.8%. That means total citywide taxes last year were $232,501,130 and they will now be $248,316,456; a change of $15,815,326. That change is going to be experienced by the average home owner in the city as an extra $50 on their property taxes over the entire year.

That $15m number is important because the budget gap our city was facing this year due to rising costs was roughly $26m. That means that for all practical intents and purposes the Mayor’s proposed budget is a $11m cut. It’s a cut. This is a cutting budget. There are no frills. There are not new and exciting initiatives. There are not piles of new employees. Thankfully the cuts were done thoughtfully so our city is not experiencing layoffs.

Saint Paul’s 6.8% should not feel interesting or exciting or new. It is largely in line with the way the city has budgeted in the recent past: RESPONSIBLY. Don’t take my word for it though. Our neighbors’ tax levy increases reveal Saint Paul’s long term fiscal responsibility, along with our AAA bond rating.

Minneapolis faces a 11.3% levy increase with 100 layoffs.

Dakota County is facing a possible 21.2% levy increase with layoffs.

Carver County faces a 16.84% levy increase.

Crystal 12.6%

White Bear Lake 12.23%

Wayzata, a ghoulish home for devils, 11.53%

Shoreview 10.71%

On and on it goes until you’re finally far enough out and the infrastructure is new enough that you hit Eden Prairie’s 2% levy. Don’t worry, their bill will come due in the not too distant future. No Preaching yet! I’m just a big fan of Damocles.

An Aside: I have been chastised in the past for comparing County budgets to City budgets. “They have different responsibilities!” True! But also they serve and draw resources from an overlapping constituency and their responsibilities have been delegated by law makers under the premise of balancing the work load. Their budgets are also aligned in both volume and expenditure in very educational ways. I think the comparison is relevant and useful and if you’re reading this diatribe then you should probably know the nuances of the differences between City and County as well and what better motivation to become educated than thinking someone else is being dumb.

THE CUTS:

So! Even with Saint Paul’s fiscal responsibility we find ourselves in a situation where we were looking at cutting Rec Centers and Libraries from the board. Those are cuts that I disagree with not only because I am an insufferable Lib who enjoys feel good nonsense like education and happy children, but because those cuts are miniscule and low impact compared to the budget writ large. Fortunately after the Council built consensus and the Community got their input in, the Mayor then released a Supplementary Budget that undid our Parks and Library cuts, except for the Duluth and Case Rec Center because it is an old bunker and falling to pieces. Supplemental budgets aren’t really a thing we do at the city historically speaking but the Politics of what was going to happen with the budget was very clear and this saved everyone a whole bunch of useless bickering.

Let’s still talk about the cuts we avoided because it’s very educational context. The total Library budget is $26,537,814; the total Parks and Rec budget is $89,368,091. That’s roughly 3% and 10% of the total budget respectively, 13% of our total budget for both agencies. Whereas SPPD alone is $151,881,683 or 17% of our city’s total budget. Public Works’s total comes in at $269,322,696 or roughly 30% of the budget, though there is a huge caveat there because the way we fund capital projects and roadways in this country is wild; but the lesson here should be daylight level clear: Half of our budget is spent on Cops and Cars (47%) and if you’re a person who wants to solve finances with cuts and you’re not talking about cutting either of those two things then not only are you not taking the budget seriously, you’re not even taking your own premise seriously. Those departments do face cuts this year.

All this talk and context has been about the Mayor’s proposed budget and 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! From my own vote counting from inside the house there was consensus to reverse the closing of the library and the reductions of Parks hours since about the first weekend of the State Fair, I’m talking 7-0. 

Keeping Dayton’s Bluff library open is going to cost about $280,000 for a year. No, I am not missing numbers, it is that cheap, we have spent more in labor talking about this library closure than what it would take to keep it open. The major Parks hours cuts are about $188,000. No, I am not missing numbers, it is that cheap, we haven’t been talking about this so I don’t think the whole ‘spending-more-talking-about-the-problem-than-the-problem-costs-to-solve’ thing applies here, but I am confident we would have gotten there without the Supplemental Budget.

Both of these numbers are also less than a specific and recent lawsuit that the city settled and I think about that a lot. They will also likely be much less than two different but very similarly specific potential lawsuits that the city will likely settle. I’m not mad! Please don’t tell the newspaper I got mad.

Most of the budget feedback Council has received has been centered around Parks and Library cuts totaling roughly $468,000. Out of the Tax Levy, NOT the entire budget, we’re talking about 0.2%. Not two whole percent, two tenths of one percent.

“If those numbers are right and every CM agrees we should pay for it then what’s all the drama?” Well. You are. Council members are very reluctant to raise taxes even an inch when the community is asking because the community is also always yelling: “I don’t want to pay any more taxes!” And despite what you may think, your Councilor does read your emails. They do listen to what you have to say, it’s just that being heard and getting what you want remain two different things.

I am fortunate enough to work for a Councilor who is comfortable adding that 0.2% to the levy and being done with the conversation because I have reminded her 1,000 times that the conversation about the money costs money and she is sick of me squawking like a parrot. She also understands that, duh, nobody wants to pay more money for things but the value those things provide us are worth more than the pain of an increase. Not every Council member sees things that way, so from there we need to get into a conversation about moving money around, and from where, and how much from where, and on and on until we find the consensus on the $468,000. That’s how a Budget becomes a Budget Process; or I guess in this case how a Budget becomes a Supplemental Budget.

THE GIST:

That’s the outline I wanted you to have the feel of before we really get into the opining, let’s sum it up:

Saint Paul’s total budget is $888,000,000. Your property taxes are only 28% of that at $248,000,000, the city cleverly handles the remaining 72%. Your tax increase this year is looking like 6.8% of that 28%. For the average household in STP that’ll be $50 more per year. Despite that increase, the city budget and services will be experiencing a cut relative to inflation. Saint Paul has passed responsible budgets ever since Randy Kelly got thrown out, so there will not be layoffs this year and our levy increase will be much lower than most of our neighbors. The cuts people are feeling the most were in Parks and Libraries. Those cuts were also a very small amount of money. The Council agrees we should undo those cuts, they do not agree on how to undo those cuts. That disagreement on how no longer matters because the Mayor came in with a Supplemental Budget undoing those cuts and said “Okay! I hear you. I found the money for the Parks and Libraries.”

THE OPINIONS:

I think a really fair question at this point is “Why do my property taxes keep going up so much though?” First I want to make it crystal clear that this is not a Saint Paul question. Dakota County, long a gloating, clucking, tax haven has now run out of cheap tricks to keep its tax levy low. Its fund balance (savings account) has been ravaged and they are facing massive tax increases and massive cuts at the same time to save their asses. Their story is not unique either, every municipality, every school district, every county is facing constant increases; which brings us back to “Why?”

Shit, as they say, rolls down hill and your property taxes and the costs of your city are at the bottom of a hill. 

Above us is your Minnesota state government and its income tax; for decades they have been offloading costs or sending unfunded mandates downhill. My personal favorite is the Minnesota Data Practices Act where you can request any local government official’s email, but the state legislators exempted themselves from it. Rules for thee, not for me, teehee.

Above them is your federal government. I do not need to tell you the feds suck shit, pardon my french, but they do. My sneering, venomous disdain surpasses my capacity to express in writing. The feds do not help our city. You were here this winter, they actually sent armed goons to attack us. They killed some of us. Those guys were paid with your tax money. By the way, last time I checked my income taxes cost me SIX times what my property taxes did. The federal government is like a natural disaster. I send 1/5th of my money to an institution that sent Texan incels and pedophiles to kidnap my neighbors.

Melvin Carter never spent your money on a cruise missile. 

Another Aside: I’ve also been chastised about comparing income taxes and property taxes in the past saying “If I pay 10% of the value of my house over ten years, I’ve paid 100% of the value of the house, but if I pay 20% of my annual income in income taxes, after ten years I’ve still only paid 20% of my income.” To which my retort is that we’re not buying your house nor are we obliged to raise its value. We’re buying the ongoing services of government based on an extremely flimsy relationship between functional government and property values. The longer you think about this the dumber you think property taxes are as a concept and then you start talking about Georgism and alienating friends and coworkers and let’s just skip that for now.

I genuinely, truly, believe that Municipal Government is the highest functioning form of government. We are the cheapest, we bring the most value to your life, we are the most accessible, we most closely align with the values of the community we represent.

I also think that it’s because we are the best aligned and most accessible that we receive the most criticism. You know what we’re doing because what we do appears in your life, what we do matters to you more than any other form of government. You know my email address, hell, most of you just know my address address. I have to check over my shoulder at the bar when I tell my friends a story about a constituent email that detailed the fears of the effect a homeless encampment would have on Mississippi River jet skiers because the jet skier might be at the bar with me. You’re never going to find Amy Klobuchar at the 620 Club but you will find me.

It’s my hope this prompts you to think about how you think about your own money, where it goes, and how you’re represented. You are absolutely entitled to criticize and examine your own local government; I made a career out of it! But you have to take the time to criticize your own criticism. Are you focused on the right thing? The right person? Are you advocating in a way that accurately reflects your values? Are you actually oppositional with your local government or are you frustrated with a teammate who is struggling to succeed? Should you offer to help or actively oppose? 

It’s very easy to give your City Government grief because your City Government mostly agrees with you. Something I reflect on constantly about my advocacy days is that none of the electeds I ever barked at organized against me. While I was barking at Chris Tolbert to upzone the Ford Site Chris Tolbert was trying to figure out how to upzone the Ford Site. I was just an asshole who didn’t realize that work also took time, that there were state laws and federal laws to negotiate, financial costs and material costs I never considered. It would have been easy for him to make some calls and have some folks who actually disagreed with me crowd me out at that dais; but he didn’t, because he largely agreed with me despite me being an enormous brat. How lucky I was for his patience.

I became so much more effective when I traded opposition for cooperation; more than that I set aside my own goals and spent time looking for others working towards goals I agreed with. I found myself moving miles faster, miles farther in politics by suborning my own specific interests and signing up with a team aligned with my values. We love to valorize the Citizen Rebel but everything runs on the labor of the Public Servant.

If you’re worried about money, quit writing the City and tell Betty to figure out our horrible federal government. It would be thrilling to be the villain the Tax Hounds think we are, it would mean there was far more power and resources here at home; but the reality is your property tax bill goes up not because your City Government is splurging, but because it’s covering for the assholes in D.C.

Anyhow. Saint Paul is the best city in the whole universe. I love you.

-TB