St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter’s “no frills, no fun” budget proposal may be in line for some significant last-minute changes.
With a week to go before finalizing the city’s 2026 spending plan, the city council is debating up to 29 budget amendments aimed at unwinding planned workforce reductions at specific libraries and rec centers, as well as staving off proposed cuts to parking enforcement officers, St. Paul Fire Department’s overnight crew, legal services for immigrants and a “commercial corridors” business improvement program.
The council is looking to increase spending in those areas and others, despite the fact the city may end the year as much as $8.4 million in the red. Spending has overshot revenue this year due to a cyber security incident that cost the city $2.5 million and a $7.5 million legal payout in September related to the shooting death of Cordale Handy.
“We have heard do not cut hours at libraries and rec centers,” said Council President Rebecca Noecker, addressing a standing-room-only crowd during the city’s annual truth in taxation hearing Tuesday evening. “We have heard do not cut firefighters and first responders. … Our immigration defense fund is going to be more important than ever right now.”
In an interview Wednesday, Noecker said the council is working on a multi-part global amendment that, backed by consensus support, will introduce a series of roughly $4 million in budget additions.
If those 13 or more consensus amendments go through, the final council vote next Wednesday will neither increase or decrease the mayor’s proposed 5.3% tax levy increase. To fund them, Noecker said the council will rely on an increase to fire department transport fees, which are ambulance runs billed to insurance, for an added $2.5 million next year. Additional dollars will come from parking funds, employee vacancies and other budget transfers.
“There’s no reason why our taxpayers shouldn’t be benefiting from these fees that are going to insurers,” Noecker said.
Some budget cuts could be restored
Without a last-minute budget fix, the Arlington Hills Public Library is poised to open at noon instead of 10 a.m. twice a week come January, a direct response to losing the hourly equivalent of 1.3 librarians and custodians to vacancies and retirements. That adds up to about a $129,000 cut to the library system’s staffing budget. Substitute staffing would be reduced an additional $44,000, or 18%, equivalent to losing 34 hours of fill-in staffing per week throughout the system.
In another budget change, some $345,000 in funding for the city’s neighborhood district council system could be shifted from federal Community Development Block Grants to cash accounts, freeing them up from federal red tape. Another $400,000 could be restored to the Commercial Corridors initiative, which uses economic development funds for street beautification, public art, neighborhood events and business grants around 18 commercial districts.
Individual council members may bring their own additional budget amendments to the table next Wednesday, though it’s not entirely clear if they’ll have garnered the four-vote majority needed.
Council Member Anika Bowie has objected to shutting down the Rondo Community Library at Dale and University avenues for safety improvements — a construction process that could take up to a year — without greater worker and community input. She’s also called for $100,000 to support a housing program for men who have been previously incarcerated, which would be run through the nonprofit Ujaama Place. Several men involved in the effort spoke at Tuesday’s hearing.
Some frontline library staff have said the Rondo Library improvements could make safety concerns worse by moving bathrooms deeper into the structure, without addressing root concerns about fentanyl users, unattended youth and loiterers coming from the nearby Green Line station.
“I have shared with Council Member Bowie that I agree with the need to have a clear plan not just for Rondo Library, but for the entire intersection,” Noecker said. “How is it going to be any different when the library reopens? I do agree with asking for that kind of accountability and that kind of reporting, and it’s something that we can tie into library board meetings, but I don’t believe in tying it to the budget. … The budget is a very blunt instrument.”
AFSCME, property owners, Twin Cities DSA speak out
Meanwhile, the two-hour truth in taxation hearing, held in downtown council chambers, drew long lines of homeowners alarmed by property tax increases, AFSCME workers decrying what they described as poverty wages and short or part-time staffing in key areas, and others angered by the St. Paul Police Department’s involvement in a federal immigration enforcement operation on Tuesday that dissolved at times into violent clashes with protesters.
Brian Dobie, a Macalester-Groveland resident, told the council on Tuesday he’s seen his total property taxes climb from $9,705 in 2024 to $11,250 last year, with $12,384 proposed for 2026. That’s a 28% increase in two years.
“It’s unsustainable,” Dobie said. “I’m all for paying my fair share of reasonable taxes for essential services, but I think that’s the point — they’re not reasonable taxes and they’re well beyond the essential services we need.”
Calling for an increase rather than a decrease in human services, Taylor Sibthorp, a member of the Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America, said the city should reconsider its priorities, including the planned security improvements at the Rondo Library. “We are about to spend more than $700,000 to move a bathroom,” Sibthorp said. “Put our dollars toward care over punishment.”
AFSCME workers arrived holding printed images of cat eyes on dark signs labeled “AFSCME Is Watching.” They said starting wages around $17 per hour for rec center workers were barely above the citywide minimum wage, and promotions for part-time Parks and Rec and library workers have been slow in coming.
“We’re not asking for much,” said Rosie Kohnen, a community rec leader on the East Side. “I mean, I barely make it. … I live in affordable housing, I’ve come up from the streets, I’ve been homeless before. I know what it’s like, and it’s very scary to think I could go back to where I was because my rent is almost both of my paychecks. And it’s supposed to be affordable housing.”
Noecker said AFSCME had brought legitimate concerns to the table. She noted Human Resources had conducted the first phase of a “pay equity” study for city employees, but council members had yet to see the results, and a more comprehensive study across all payroll categories is likely in order.
In light of Tuesday morning’s police enforcement action on the East Side, some speakers questioned why the council is increasing police spending by $3 million, a change council members have largely attributed to inflation and contractually-approved wage increases rather than a net increase in officers.
A smoother process
The council president said the final budget that will be approved Dec. 3 will not make everyone happy, but the process has been smoother and more transparent than it was a year ago, when last-minute budget wrangling ended with a series of mayoral vetoes and veto overrides.
The mayor’s office on Wednesday signaled it was poised to do what was necessary to get the budget put to bed on time. “We are committed to getting it done,” said Jennifer Lor, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office.
Carter’s 2026 budget proposal, unveiled in August, calls for a 5.3% increase to the city tax levy, while keeping some 40 or more job vacancies unfilled. It includes a $5 million investment in an office-to-residential housing conversion program, and added funding for other housing initiatives, including emergency rental assistance and down payment assistance.
What it will cost owner of median house?
The $887 million spending plan for the coming year would levy $232.5 million on city property owners, supporting a general fund budget of $414.4 million, which includes the library budget.
For the median St. Paul home with a value of $289,000, the new levy would add an estimated $107 to property taxes next year, with wide variation from neighborhood to neighborhood and between property types.
Increased charges related to sanitary sewers, storm sewers, water and recycling would add another $125, for a total increase of $232 in city-related taxes and services.
Ramsey County, school district levies
Ramsey County and the St. Paul School District have proposed their own levies. The county, which has planned a nearly 10% increase to its levy, will host a Truth in Taxation public hearing at 6 p.m. on Dec. 11 at the downtown council chambers at 15 W. Kellogg Blvd.
St. Paul Public Schools, which is benefiting from a $37.2 million, 10-year levy approved by voters on Nov. 4, will hold their Truth in Taxation hearing from 6 to 8 p.m. on Dec. 2 at the district administration building at 360 Colborne St. The district is trimming the current levy by 2% in 2026.
St. Paul taxes and fees for 2026
Proposed St. Paul tax and fee increases for 2026 on a median home value ($289,200):
• $107 increase in city property taxes.
• $57 increase to water charges.
• $45 increase to sanitary sewer charges.
• $18 increase to storm sewer charges.
• $5 increase to recycling charges.
• $0 increase for trash.
Total city increase: $232.
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