Ramsey County is poised to increase its property tax levy by 9.75% for taxes payable in 2026 and residents can learn more and give input on the proposed budget at a truth in taxation hearing Thursday.

The proposed budget totals $929.25 million in 2026 — a 6.57% increase from the 2025 supplemental budget of $848.5 million. The 2027 proposed budget of $968.45 million is a 4.22% increase from 2026.

The county develops a main budget for the coming year and then a supplemental one for the year after.

About 46% of the county’s proposed budget is funded through property taxes and county officials have cited rising costs, limited revenue growth, increasing demand for services, as well as uncertainty on the federal and state level as budget pressures.

What’s driving the increase?

The biggest drivers of expenses in the county are unfunded state mandates, employee compensation and core services, according to County Manager Ling Becker.

Ramsey also has limited opportunity for property tax base growth compared to some other counties, according to Matt Hilgart, a lobbyist with the Association of Minnesota Counties. It also has high social services costs.

The rest of the county’s budget 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.

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. The estimated median home value in St. Paul for 2026 is $289,200. The estimated median-value home in Ramsey County for 2026 is $394,700 and the county portion of the average homeowner’s property tax bill would be $1,951.

Based on the proposed tax levy approved by the board in September, Ramsey County would have a total tax levy of $434,565,563. It would have a total operating budget of $929,256,728. Commissioners are expected to set the final levy on Dec. 16 and could reduce the overall levy and operating budget. The proposed levy could not be increased.

How does Ramsey County compare to other metro counties?

Statewide, counties are proposing to raise their levies by an average of 8.1% for this coming year, according to the Minnesota Department of Revenue. That’s an increase from previous years when the average generally was around 5% to 6%. Cities are raising levies by a projected average maximum of 8.7% and schools by a projected average maximum of 5.8%.

A levy increase doesn’t necessarily mean each property’s tax bill will go up by that percentage.  New developments in communities, such as businesses or homes, for example, can offset some of a levy’s effect on tax bills. Other factors such as property valuation also play a role in final property taxes.

While some counties, such as Anoka County, have already approved their 2026 property tax levy increase, most will vote on their budgets and levy Dec. 16.

Estimated price of a median-value home for 2026

• Anoka: $338,800.

• Dakota: $384,800.

• Hennepin: $400,900.

• Ramsey: $394,700.

• Washington: $420,900.

Proposed or approved tax levy increases by percentage for 2026

• Anoka: 9.4% (down from a preliminary 9.9% figure).

• Dakota: 9.9%.

• Hennepin: 7.79%.

• Ramsey: 9.75%.

• Washington: 6.95%.

County portion of property taxes for the owner of a median-value home in 2026

• Anoka: $1,023.

• Dakota: $784.

• Hennepin: $1,530.

• Ramsey: $1,951.

• Washington: $1,020.

How the levy process works

Local governments are required to adopt a proposed levy in September for the upcoming year. That includes cities with a population of more than 500 residents, counties, school districts, the Metropolitan Council, the Metropolitan Airports Commission, the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District and certain fire protection and emergency medical services special taxing districts and regional library authorities.

The final adopted levy may not exceed the proposed levy, except in cases of levies approved by voters in referendum elections. Local governments are required to hold a public meeting on their budget and taxes after notices to residents are sent out and before the final levy can be adopted.

Other levies

Meanwhile, the total proposed levy for taxes payable in 2026 for St. Paul Public Schools is expected to be certified by the district board Dec. 16 at their regular meeting. With a special levy increase approved by voters in November, the proposed tax levy is now $253.73 million or 14.89% more than the previous year. The owner of a median-value home of $289,200 in St. Paul would see a $291 per year property tax increase — around $24 a month.

The St. Paul city council last week adopted the city’s 2026 spending plan, including a 5.3% property tax levy. For a median-value St. Paul home of $289,000, the levy will add an estimated $107 to property taxes next year, depending on factors such as neighborhood and property type.

How to learn more

The Ramsey County truth in taxation hearing will take place at 6 p.m. Thursday in the St. Paul City Hall–Ramsey County Courthouse council chambers on the third floor of 15 W. Kellogg Blvd in St. Paul. The meeting also will be live-streamed.

To learn more about Ramsey County’s proposed budget, go to ramseycounty.us/your-government/budget-finance

To learn more about eligibility for property tax relief, visit revenue.state.mn.us/property-tax-refund.

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Do economic rivalries between Texas and California or New York and Florida feel like yet another sign that America has become hopelessly divided? There is a bright side to their disagreements, and a new ranking of economic freedom across the states helps explain why.

As a popular bumper sticker among economists proclaims: “I heart federalism (for the natural experiments).” In a federal system, states have wide latitude to set priorities and to choose their own strategies to achieve them. It’s messy, but informative.

New York and California, along with other states like New Mexico, have long pursued a government-centric approach to economic policy. They tax a lot. They spend a lot. Their governments employ a large fraction of the workforce and set a high minimum wage.

They aren’t socialist by any means; most property is still in private hands. Consumers, workers and businesses still make most of their own decisions. But these states control more resources than other states do through taxes and regulation, so their governments play a larger role in economic life.

At the other end of the spectrum, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Florida, and South Dakota allow citizens to make more of their own economic choices, keep more of their own money, and set more of their own terms of trade and work.

They aren’t free-market utopias; they impose plenty of regulatory burdens. But they are economically freer than other states.

These two groups have, in other words, been experimenting with different approaches to economic policy. Does one approach lead to higher incomes or faster growth? Greater economic equality or more upward mobility? What about other aspects of a good society like tolerance, generosity or life satisfaction?

For two decades now, we’ve had a handy tool to assess these questions: The Fraser Institute’s annual “Economic Freedom of North America” index uses 10 variables in three broad areas — government spending, taxation, and labor regulation — to assess the degree of economic freedom in each of the 50 states and the territory of Puerto Rico, as well as in Canadian provinces and Mexican states.

It’s an objective measurement that allows economists to take stock of federalism’s natural experiments. Independent scholars have done just that, having now conducted over 250 studies using the index. With careful statistical analyses that control for the important differences among states — possibly confounding factors such as geography, climate and historical development — the vast majority of these studies associate greater economic freedom with greater prosperity.

In fact, freedom’s payoffs are astounding.

States with high and increasing levels of economic freedom tend to see higher incomes, more entrepreneurial activity and more net in-migration. Their people tend to experience greater income mobility, and more income growth at both the top and bottom of the income distribution. They have less poverty, less homelessness and lower levels of food insecurity. People there even seem to be more philanthropic, more tolerant and more satisfied with their lives.

New Hampshire, Tennessee, and South Dakota topped the latest edition of the report while Puerto Rico, New Mexico and New York rounded out the bottom. New Mexico displaced New York as the least economically free state in the union for the first time in 20 years, but it had always been near the bottom.

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The bigger stories are the major movers. The last 10 years’ worth of available data show South Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin, Idaho, Iowa and Utah moving up at least 10 places. Arizona, Virginia, Nebraska and Maryland have all slid down 10 spots.

Over that same decade, those states that were among the freest 25% on average saw their populations grow nearly 18 times faster than those in the bottom 25%. Statewide personal income grew nine times as fast.

Economic freedom isn’t a panacea. Nor is it the only thing that matters. Geography, culture, and even luck can influence a state’s prosperity. But while policymakers can’t move mountains or rewrite cultures, they can look at the data, heed the lessons of our federalist experiment, and permit their citizens more economic freedom.

Matthew D. Mitchell is a senior fellow with the Centre for Human Freedom at the Fraser Institute and a senior affiliated scholar with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He wrote this column for the Chicago Tribune.

Since the last time I wrote about holiday pop-ups, a few more have sprung up in the east metro.

I visited three spots in the past week, and none of them take reservations, but I was seated right away at each, so go get your jingle on!

Blitzen’s Holiday Bar at Omni Viking Lakes Hotel

The Naughty and Spice and Mistletoe Martini at Blitzen’s Holiday Bar at Omni Viking Lakes Hotel. (Jess Fleming / Pioneer Press)

This hotel lobby bar hosts by far the fanciest of the pop-ups I’ve been to this year, and the prices match the ambiance. Seriously, the cheapest drink here, the Naughty and Spice, clocks in at $18.

Still, it’s worth the extra scratch if only because the drinks — there are eight alcoholic sips in total — are next-level good. That Naughty and Spice, a sort of holiday-spiced old-fashioned, features Old Forester 86 bourbon, Lustau Palo Cortado sherry, bitters and a dash of pumpkin cocktail syrup. My husband couldn’t stop raving about it, and he hates all things pumpkin spice. The pumpkin here just adds a little depth and sweetness to a very solid, complex drink.

If there’s a savory drink on your menu, I’m going to order it, and the Mistletoe Martini ($20) did not disappoint. Fords gin, nutty sherry, floral Cocchi Americano fortified wine and some saline kept me sipping and thinking about all the fun flavors, and the red and green olives made a lovely snack.

If you’re more into the sweet stuff, you can order a Dubai-style hot chocolate, spiked or not.

There’s no food beyond a cookie platter or a nutty, dried-fruit-filled snack mix, which we enjoyed.

Did I mention there’s an enormous drive-through light display on the grounds? It’s nearly $40 a car, but it’s pretty spectacular, from what I could see. And a stop at Blitzen’s afterward seems like just the thing to bring about some holiday cheer.

Omni Viking Lakes Hotel: 2611 Nordic Way, Eagan; 651-689-9800; omnihotels.com/hotels/viking-lakes-minnesota

Magic of Lights: Runs through Jan. 3 at Omni Viking Lakes. Tickets and more information at magicoflights.com/locations/viking-lake-mn/

Eagles Club Jingle Bar at St. Paul Eagles Club 33

The Eagles Club Jingle Bar at St. Paul Eagles Club 33 on St. Paul’s East Side. (Jess Fleming / Pioneer Press)
The Gin Jingle at the Eagles Club Jingle Bar at St. Paul Eagles Club 33. (Jess Fleming / Pioneer Press)

The all-volunteer staff at this dive bar/club on St. Paul’s East Side have decked the halls with mostly vintage and secondhand decor.

They’ve also concocted a holiday drink menu with fun names like Peppermint Snowstorm, Gin Jingle, and a green drink called You’re a Mean One.

The club is known for its $10 steak or $5 burger on Wednesdays (they don’t serve food any other day) and karaoke on Fridays. There’s also bar trivia on Thursday, Dec. 18, and photos with Santa from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 20.

Perhaps best of all, especially during this season of gift buying, the drinks are criminally cheap at $6 apiece.

It’s open every day from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m., except Sunday, when the hours are noon to 6 p.m.

St. Paul Eagles Club 33: 287 Maria Ave., St. Paul; 651-340-9406; eagles33.com

Miracle on 7th Street Christmas Lounge at Shamrock’s Irish Nook

This is perhaps the most under-the-radar holiday pop-up in the cities.

The Snowstorm Margarita and Campfire Mule at Miracle on 7th Street Christmas Lounge at Shamrock’s Irish Nook. (Jess Fleming / Pioneer Press)

Shamrock’s has decorated its patio bar (don’t worry, it’s indoors — the garage door that opens to the patio is closed in the winter) and added a holiday cocktail menu.

We enjoyed the Snowstorm Margarita, a creamy concoction made tropical with some coconut rum and coconut milk, and the Irish whiskey-spiked Campfire Mule, which is adorably garnished with marshmallows that are toasted behind the bar.

Pair those cocktails with any one of the bar’s fabulous burgers and fries, and you have a winning combination for these cold winter nights. They’ve got a free shuttle to most games and arena concerts, too, so it’s a great place to have a pre-event nosh and sip.

Shamrock’s Irish Nook: 995 W. Seventh St., St. Paul; 651-228-9925; crshamrocks.com

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Today is Thursday, Dec. 11, the 345th day of 2025. There are 20 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Dec. 11, 1978, nearly $6 million in cash and jewelry were stolen from the Lufthansa cargo terminal at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport; the ‘Lufthansa Heist,’ the largest cash robbery in history at the time, was immortalized in the film “Goodfellas.”

Also on this date:

In 1816, Indiana was admitted to the Union as the 19th U.S. state.

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In 1936, Britain’s King Edward VIII abdicated the throne so he could marry American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson; his brother, Prince Albert, became King George VI.

In 1946, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was established.

In 1972, Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan guided lander Challenger to a touchdown on the moon, where he and Harrison “Jack” Schmitt would become the last two Apollo astronauts to walk on the lunar surface. They returned to Earth three days later with astronaut Ronald Evans, who remained aloft in the command module.

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed legislation creating a $1.6 billion environmental “Superfund” to pay for cleaning up hazardous chemical spills and toxic waste dumps.

In 1997, more than 150 countries agreed at a global warming conference in Kyoto, Japan, to control the Earth’s greenhouse gases.

In 1998, majority Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee pushed through three articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton, over Democratic objections.

In 2008, former Nasdaq chairman Bernie Madoff was arrested, accused of running a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that wiped out the life savings of thousands of people and wrecked charities. (Madoff died in April 2021 while serving a 150-year federal prison sentence.)

In 2020, the Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit backed by President Donald Trump to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory, ending an attempt to get legal issues that were rejected by state and federal judges before the nation’s highest court.

Today’s Birthdays:

Actor Rita Moreno is 94.
Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is 82.
Singer Brenda Lee is 81.
Singer Jermaine Jackson is 71.
Rock musician Nikki Sixx (Motley Crue) is 67.
Actor-comedian Mo’Nique is 58.
Hockey Hall of Famer Daniel Alfredsson is 53.
Rapper-actor Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) is 52.
Author Colleen Hoover is 46.
Actor Rider Strong is 46.
Actor Alexa Demie is 35.
Actor Hailee Steinfeld is 29.