The Ramsey County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to set next year’s tax levy increase at 9.75% — or $434.56 million.

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State law requires the county to certify the proposed tax levy by Sept. 30. Commissioners will approve the final 2026 tax levy in December. The final levy increase can be less than $434.56 million but it can’t be more, now that the maximum levy has been set.

The county’s proposed budget totals $929.3 million in 2026 – a 6.57% increase from the 2025 supplemental budget of $848.5 million. The 2027 proposed budget of $968.5 million is a 4.22% increase from 2026.

What the average homeowner can expect

The average tax increase on a residential median-value home is estimated at a 4.4% increase, or $22 per month according to county officials, because of overall growth in property values and the amount of tax revenue coming from properties other than residences.

The estimated median home value in St. Paul for 2026 is $289,200.

About 46% of the county’s proposed budget is funded through property taxes. The rest comes from intergovernmental revenues, charges for services and other sources. The county raised the tax levy 4.75% in 2025, 6.8% in 2024 and 4.5% in 2023.

Why is it going up?

The proposed levy comes at a time when state and federal decisions are shifting responsibilities to the county without providing the needed resources for them, according to county officials.

County service teams have been holding budget presentations throughout this month. None of those departments presented “wish” budgets but rather presented what they need in order for the county to provide the services that it is required to, said Commissioner Mary Jo McGuire.

“I’m going to support this budget item today knowing that we’re going to continue to work on what we can do to not have this burden on our property taxpayers,” McGuire said at Tuesday’s meeting. “And it’s not any of our choice (but) that’s one of the very few ways that we can raise revenue is through the property tax.”

Board commissioners said they plan to work with county teams and others ahead of December to decrease the proposed levy hike.

“This is a very hard budget. There are very real consequences,” said Commissioner Mai Chong Xiong, during Tuesday’s meeting, at times becoming visibly emotional. “So I just want to be clear that today’s vote is just setting the max levy and that my commitment still remains — working through this budget with our staff and with our residents to ensure … Ramsey County is prepared to pay for the big shift that’s coming from the federal and from the state … No matter what type of cuts we make here, it will be painful, and I just want to reassure our residents that we take this role very seriously.”

Public hearing

Meanwhile, the board of commissioners held a public hearing on the proposed budget Monday.

Residents spoke about increases in property taxes and the county’s plans to close its Detox and Withdrawal Management Program on Dec. 31 as part of the proposed budget.

One Maplewood resident said levy increases have been “unsustainable” and his property taxes will go up to $12,000.

St. Paul resident Brandon Huggins said that around six years ago, he was homeless, but has now become a homeowner and is struggling with increasing taxes.

“Because of services like Ramsey County Detox, I was able to get sober, to become a taxpayer and I’m now a homeowner,” Huggins said. “And you’re increasing my taxes to a point where I’m struggling to provide for my family. You’re asking more and more from the residents of this city and this county. And you’re cutting services for us, public services, community services.”

County officials have cited financial underperformance as part of its decision to close its detox and withdrawal program and anticipates moving to community-based services will reduce county costs by at least $2 million annually. The county’s proposed budget includes the reduction of 43 staff positions, most of whom work for the program.

AFSCME union members representing Ramsey County workers oppose closing the program, citing concerns with the privatizing services and “questionable ethical ties to county leadership staff and hired analysts who were contracted to study the public program’s effectiveness,” union officials said last week.

When are the next hearings?

Community members will be able to provide feedback on the proposed budget during the next public hearing on Dec. 11, before its expected approval on Dec. 16.

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Last season could have ended as a real downer for Dawn Plitzuweit’s basketball team. The Gophers lost five of their last six regular-season games, including a fairly lopsided loss to Washington in the Big Ten tournament that likely eliminated them from NCAA tournament consideration.

An early exit from the WBIT might have led players to question whether their 16-1 start, and short stay in the Associated Press top 25, was a mirage.

Instead, the Gophers responded, winning five straight games to earn the WBIT championship — the program’s second postseason trophy — and send them into the 2025-26 season with confidence as high as their tournament expectations.

Minnesota hasn’t made the NCAA tournament since 2018. This year’s team aims to end that drought next spring.

“It’s up to us, how we go out and perform game in and game out,” senior point guard Amaya Battle said. “At the end of the day, the opportunity’s there. It’s up to us to do what we have to do to get there.”

Plitzuweit put the team through its first official practice of the fall on Tuesday afternoon at Williams Arena.

“We have a very veteran group, and a group that really understands at a much different level than in the past,” Plitzuweit said. “Our intensity has been really positive.”

The Gophers return nearly every player from a team that rolled unbeaten through its nonconference slate — a program first — then ran into some trouble in conference play. They battled ranked opponents such as Maryland, Ohio State and Southern California to the wire, but beat only two Big Ten NCAA teams, Illinois and Indiana.

They could have used off guard Mara Braun, sidelined in November after she broke her right foot for the second time in two years. Worked in slowly during summer workouts, she is now full go, no restrictions.

“My body feels really good, and I’m just excited to be back with the girls,” she said.

Now they have her back. Braun was the breakout star in a group of prospects recruited by former coach Lindsay Whalen. Now a redshirt junior, she joins a team full of proven veterans, from guards Battle and last year’s leading scorer Grace Grocholski, to senior forwards Mallory Heyer and Sophie Hart.

All of them finished as the team’s leading scorer in games last season, as did sophomore small forward Tori McKinney, and played big roles as the Gophers swept through the WBIT with victories over Toledo, Missouri State, Gonzaga, Florida and Belmont.

Plitzuweit has no concerns about mixing Braun back into the mix.

“She plugs and plays. She gets it,” the coach said. “She fits right in.”

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By JOSHUA GOODMAN and RYAN J. FOLEY

MIAMI (AP) — Hundreds of federal employees who lost their jobs in Elon Musk’s cost-cutting blitz are being asked to return to work.

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The General Services Administration has given the employees — who managed government workspaces — until the end of the week to accept or decline reinstatement, according to an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press. Those who accept must report for duty on Oct. 6 after what amounts to a seven-month paid vacation, during which time the GSA in some cases racked up high costs — passed along to taxpayers — to stay in dozens of properties whose leases it had slated for termination or were allowed to expire.

“Ultimately, the outcome was the agency was left broken and understaffed,” said Chad Becker, a former GSA real estate official. “They didn’t have the people they needed to carry out basic functions.”

Becker, who represents owners with government leases at Arco Real Estate Solutions, said GSA has been in a “triage mode” for months. He said the sudden reversal of the downsizing reflects how Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency had gone too far, too fast.

Rehiring of purged federal employees

GSA was established in the 1940s to centralize the acquisition and management of thousands of federal workplaces. Its return to work request mirrors rehiring efforts at in several agencies targeted by DOGE. Last month, the IRS said it would allow some employees who took a resignation offer to remain on the job. The Labor Department has also brought back some employees who took buyouts, while the National Park Service earlier reinstated a number of purged employees.

Critical to the work of such agencies is the GSA, which manages many of the buildings. Starting in March, thousands of GSA employees left the agency as part of programs that encouraged them to resign or take early retirement. Hundreds of others — those subject to the recall notice — were dismissed as part of an aggressive push to reduce the size of the federal workforce. Though those employees did not show up for work, they were to be paid through the end of this month.

GSA representatives didn’t respond to detailed questions about the return-to-work notice, which the agency issued Friday. They also declined to discuss the agency’s headcount, staffing decisions or the potential cost overruns generated by reversing its plans to terminate leases.

“GSA’s leadership team has reviewed workforce actions and is making adjustments in the best interest of the customer agencies we serve and the American taxpayers,” an agency spokesman said in an email.

Democrats have assailed the Trump administration’s indiscriminate approach to slashing costs and jobs. Rep. Greg Stanton of Arizona, the top Democrat on the subcommittee overseeing the GSA, told AP there is no evidence that reductions at the agency “delivered any savings.”

“It’s created costly confusion while undermining the very services taxpayers depend on,” he said.

DOGE identified the agency, which had about 12,000 employees at the start of the Trump administration, as a chief target of its campaign to reduce fraud, waste and abuse in the federal government.

A small cohort of Musk’s trusted aides embedded in GSA’s headquarters, sometimes sleeping on cots on the agency’s sixth floor, and pursued plans to abruptly cancel nearly half of the 7,500 leases in the federal portfolio. DOGE also wanted GSA to sell hundreds of federally owned buildings with the goal of generating billions in savings.

GSA started by sending more than 800 lease cancellation notices to landlords, in many cases without informing the government tenants. The agency also published a list of hundreds of government buildings that were targeted for sale.

DOGE’s massive job cuts produced little savings

Pushback to GSA’s dumping of its portfolio was swift, and both initiatives have been dialed back. More than 480 leases slated for termination by DOGE have since been spared. Those leases were for offices scattered around the country that are occupied by such agencies as the IRS, Social Security Administration and Food and Drug Administration.

DOGE’s “Wall of Receipts,” which once boasted that the lease cancellations alone would save nearly $460 million, has since reduced that estimate to $140 million by the end of July, according to Becker, the former GSA real estate official.

Meanwhile, GSA embarked on massive job cuts. The administration slashed GSA’s headquarters staff by 79%, its portfolio managers by 65% and facilities managers by 35%, according to a federal official briefed on the situation. The official, who was not authorized to speak to the media, provided the statistics on condition of anonymity.

As a result of the internal turmoil, 131 leases expired without the government actually vacating the properties, the official said. The situation has exposed the agencies to steep fees because property owners have not been able to rent out those spaces to other tenants.

The public may soon get a clearer picture of what transpired at the agency.

The Government Accountability Office, an independent congressional watchdog, is examining the GSA’s management of its workforce, lease terminations and planned building disposals and expects to issue findings in the coming months, said David Marroni, a senior GAO official.

Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa.

Lori Barghini and Julia Cobbs are returning to the airwaves with a new podcast, “Lori and Julia Still LOUD!” which debuts Oct. 1.

The pair hosted the afternoon talk show “Lori and Julia” for 22 years on MyTalk 107.1 and helped to establish the station as a go-to for women’s voices. Last year, they surprised listeners when they announced they were ending the program, citing Barghini’s desire for more free time as well as the rigors of producing the show, which aired three hours a day, five days a week. Now, they’ll issue two new hour-long podcasts each week.

“It’s going to be perfect for us,” Barghini said. “We’re going to love this new schedule.”

Barghini said she always knew they would end up doing a podcast at some point, but she wanted to take at least a year off before pursuing the new venture. The first person they talked to was Ginny Hubbard, CEO of MyTalk’s parent company Hubbard Radio.

“She said she hoped we’d talk to her first and I told her, ‘Absolutely, you hired us for the radio. Of course we’re coming to you first,’” Barghini said.

They reached an agreement to produce “Still LOUD!” for Hubbard Radio’s Gamut Podcast Network, which distributes shows featuring longtime KQRS “Morning Show” host Tom Barnard and Pioneer Press columnist Joe Soucheray along with other local and national podcasts.

Listeners can expect to hear a similar format to the pair’s radio show. “We’re going to continue to be People magazine for people’s ears,” Barghini said. “We’ll talk about pop culture, what TV shows we’re obsessed with, movies, music, whatever we find interesting.”

Initially, it’ll just be the two of them, but they do plan to start inviting guests once they get settled. And Barghini said “Still LOUD!” will be a bit looser and more informal now that they’re freed from the constraints of commercial radio: “I like that idea that we can be — I don’t want to say raunchier, because Julia doesn’t really like raunchy — but I like the idea of being able to be more frank about some things we might have pulled back on (on the air). You know, we’ll just be laying it out there.”

The pair, who are sisters-in-law, have remained close in the time since they left MyTalk and have hosted some public events together. They just returned from a group trip they led to Paris.

Julia Cobbs and Lori Barghini visited La Galerie Dior during a recent group trip they led in Paris. (Courtesy of Julia Cobbs)

Tuesday, they recorded their first trial run of the podcast.

“The hour went by just like that,” Barghini said. “It did feel (like riding a bike again), but we didn’t have to be aware of stopping the clock or changing directions every 10 minutes. It was nice to be able to go on and off and on something like we used to in the early days on the radio, when we didn’t have any advertisers. It was just us entertaining each other.”

New episodes of “Lori and Julia Still LOUD!” will drop at 11 a.m. Wednesdays and Fridays and can be found on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon, Google or wherever listeners find their podcasts.