St. Paul schools to raise property tax levy by 7.9% in 2025

The St. Paul school board on Thursday agreed to take the district’s property tax levy to the limit once again — this time to the tune of a 7.9% increase in 2025.

The action, by unanimous vote, came at the tail end of a spirited truth-in-taxation season that found homeowners venting at hearings about the high cost of government in St. Paul and a week after the City Council voted to lower Mayor Melvin Carter’s proposed increase in the city’s share of the tax bill to 5.9%.

Jane Prince, a former City Council member, appeared before the school board earlier this month to ask members to ease the bite on homeowners. Between 2015 and 2024, she said, St. Paul Public Schools raised its levies by 50%, compared with a 39% hike in Minneapolis.

On Thursday, Tom Sager, the district’s executive chief of financial services, cautioned that a move by the board to levy taxes in an amount less than that allowed by the state Department of Education could lead to a corresponding decrease in the amount of state aid it receives in some funding categories.

Board Member Carlo Franco said Thursday he hoped that the district could one day get to the point of lowering its levy increases in response to homeowners decrying “big taxes” in St. Paul.

“Our commitment is to make sure that those ‘big taxes’ translate into big outcomes and big successes for our kids,” Franco said.

The owner of a $275,300 median-valued home in the city will see a $142 increase in the district’s share of the property tax bill, or 11.5%. Changes in individual property values, as well as levies set by the county, city and other tax bodies, are among the other factors determining one’s final overall tax bill.