Saint Paul City Council Adopts 2025 Budget

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<_o3a_p>
December 12, 2024

Contact:
Contact: Jay Willms, Interim Director of Council Operations
[email protected]

Saint Paul City Council Adopts 2025 Budget

SAINT PAUL - Yesterday, the City Council voted to approve the 2025 proposed budget, increasing the tax levy by 5.9%, which is 2% less than the mayor's originally proposed 7.9% increase.

The Council began this process with the Administration through meetings about Council priorities during the summer, leading up to the budget address. Following Mayor Carter's proposed 2025 Budget Address in August, the City Council participated in budget events hosted by the mayor's office, held ward-specific meetings and the annual city-wide budget community meeting, in addition to the Truth-in-Taxation hearing.

Throughout this months-long process, Councilmembers heard from constituents a desire to develop a budget that responds to the growing needs in our city going into the challenging years ahead, as well as solutions for tax relief for residents and business owners. Property taxes have increased dramatically over the last five years, more than 50% since 2019, which disproportionately affects residents of our lowest-income neighborhoods who juggle grocery bills and putting a roof over their head. At the same time, constituents also made it clear they need and expect our city government to fund critical community services going into 2025, anticipating much less federal and state funding than expected. The Council worked hard to balance these demands throughout the process.

The budget includes wins across city departments and historic investments in public safety:

• Adding seven total firefighters to ensure our East Side Fire Stations stay staffed and able to respond to the growing need. This is the first time a new engine company has been added simultaneously with all of the firefighters needed to operate it since 1958.
• Restoring $175,000 in library funding for materials and allocating $500,000 for the Transforming Libraries project.
• Restoring funding $250,000 to continue the free-swimming program and continuing the free youth sports programs in Parks.
• Utilizing $500,000 in economic development STAR funding for tree planting and urban canopy to address the climate crisis.
• Combining almost $1 million of unspent dollars to triple the impact of the Power of Home weatherization program and using franchise fees to fund investments in sustainability programs and projects like The Heights.
• Creating a new $1.4 million fund to support Commercial Corridors.
• Investing $2.5 million in downtown revitalization efforts, including an office-to-housing conversion incentive program that waives $1 million in permitting fees to encourage development downtown, activation of public spaces, tree trimming and vegetation management, public art and banners, increased cleaning, signage and wayfinding.
• A $4 million investment into affordable housing and supports for renters, including boosting up the downpayment assistance program and Inheritance Fund to include displaced Saint Paul families from the West Side Flats, rental assistance for Saint Paul renters, and more funding for deeply affordable housing.
• Funding $100,000 for a comprehensive Saint Paul housing policy evaluation to chart an evidence-based course on updating Saint Paul housing policies and areas for improvement.
• A $150,000 investment into a "next best" bike safety budget to fund improvements outlined in the 2024 adopted Saint Paul Bike Plan.
• A $250,000 investment into the Saint Paul Reparations Commission to deepen their work in 2025 and focus on a harm study of impacted Saint Paul residents who are descendants of slavery as well as more focused community engagement.

The Council also invested $118.6 million into the Saint Paul Police Department, more than a quarter of the General Fund and representing nearly the entirety (99.4%) of the mayor's proposed budget to support and fund our police. The $8 million increase reflects the contractual commitment to our SPPD officers' salaries, wages, and benefits, as well as a $1 million police academy to continue to excel in hiring more police in Saint Paul.

Additionally, the Council is concern about the pattern of overspending in the Saint Paul Police Department's overtime budget. The department has overspent its overtime budget by $3 million over the past three years and is projected to overspend its current budget by $5 million this year alone. The 2025 Council budget reserves $700,000 in contingency for additional overtime expenses to create more transparency around overtime spending. The Council is committed to working with the Administration and the department to improve overtime spending reporting. More precise data on activities that contribute to police overtime will help curb future overspending. At the same time, the city continues to support hiring strategies that increase the number of new officers and reduce overtime reliance.

In a challenging budget season, the Council strove to prioritize responsible reductions through strategies like cutting positions that have been vacant for at least 12 months with no hiring process underway, reducing funding for departments that have gone unspent in previous years, asking departments to prioritize the work rather than adding new positions for every new workstream, requiring complete and sufficient information about new programs before funding, and making full use of non-levy funding sources to ensure funding solutions for city services where appropriate.

To learn more about the Council's budget process, go to www.stpaul.gov/departments/city-Council/budgeting-financial-planning.<_o3a_p>

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Last Edited: December 12, 2024