Commissioners for Hennepin and Ramsey counties on Tuesday set ceilings for their respective 2016 property tax levies, with each board sticking to hikes recommended by county managers to make up for years of deferred spending.
In Hennepin County, that means next year's tax collections could grow by up to $31.2 million, a 4.5 percent increase that's significantly higher than increases in each of the past six years. In Ramsey County, the board set the maximum tax levy at 2.8 percent, about $8 million more than this year's levy.
As the boards adjust and tweak their proposed budgets in the next few months, they can lower the tax levy but not go higher. Final budgets, which the boards must adopt by the end of the year, typically hew closely to their administration's recommendations.
The Hennepin County Board voted 6-1 to support County Administrator David Hough's proposed tax levy. The lone dissenter, Commissioner Jeff Johnson, said he would support such an increase only if the county had already cut to the bone.
"I don't think we're there," he said.
But Board Chairwoman Jan Callison said the increase could have been much higher, given the need to catch up after years of smaller increases. She said the county needed to plug gaps left by state spending that hadn't kept pace with demand for quality services. "We haven't cut to the bone … but we've looked hard," she said.
With little discussion, the Ramsey County Board unanimously backed County Manager Julie Kleinschmidt's proposed 2.8 percent levy increase. While the county has held the line on taxes for a few years, Kleinschmidt said last month that more tax revenue was needed to balance "our community's needs and wants with our ability to pay."
Kleinschmidt also proposed a 2.8 property tax levy increase in 2017 for Ramsey County, which sets a biennial rather than an annual budget.
