Opinion editor's note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.
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St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter has the right 2024 budget priorities: public safety, infrastructure and operational improvements. How those areas are funded is open to debate, and taxpayers should weigh in while the budget process continues.
On Thursday, Carter proposed a 2024 budget that would raise the property tax levy to $208 million, a 3.7% increase from this year. But the owner of a median-value St. Paul home (about $267,400) would see a $26 decrease next year due to growth in the commercial and industrial sectors.
That's a welcome decrease from 2023 when the levy increased by 15% due to inflation and a change in how street maintenance dollars are collected. Additional local government aid funds from the state Legislature and federal recovery funds also contributed to keeping Carter's proposed 2024 increase relatively modest.
Promisingly, Carter would spend about half of the $13.6 million the city is receiving in state aid on gun violence intervention efforts over the next three years. The funds would bolster police efforts to prevent and respond to crime and maintain a gun diversion program.
Carter told Star Tribune Editorial Board members that his goal for fixing the city's crumbling streets over the next 20 years depends on voters agreeing to impose a 1% hike in the sales tax. The Editorial Board will have more to say about that proposal before Election Day.
One of the most intriguing and potentially economically impactful parts of Carter's spending plan is his proposal to use $1.1 million in federal recovery funding to provide up to $110 million in medical debt relief to St. Paul residents. The mayor wants the city to partner with RIP Medical Debt, a national nonprofit that buys hard-to-collect medical debt and negotiates payoffs at rates approaching $1 for every $100 in uncollected debt.
