Ramsey County officials are proposing increases of 9.75% in 2026 and 7.5% in 2027 to the property tax levy as part of the county’s budget.

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.

“County governments cannot operate as if it were business as usual,” said County Manager Ling Becker at Tuesday’s county board meeting. “We are navigating rising costs, limited revenue growth and increasing demand for services, while facing deep uncertainty from federal and state budget pressures. This budget responds directly to those realities.”

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.

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.

What’s driving this?

The three “drivers” behind the budget are unfunded mandates from the state of Minnesota, employee compensation and “directing resources to our core services and improving our organizational performance,” Becker said.

As part of 2025 supplemental budget discussions, county officials have decided to restructure, with the new system taking effect Jan. 1. This will reduce the size of the county’s Health and Wellness Service Team and sunset the county’s Strategic Team and Information and Public Records Service Team. County departments are currently organized into four Service Teams and a Strategic Team.

Priorities in the proposed budget include Project Bridge which relocates individuals from the Adult Detention Center, which is overcrowded to the Ramsey County Correctional Facility, according to county officials. There’s also the county’s Appropriate Response Initiative, which involves reexamining how it responds to 911 calls, and expanding staffing and training in Child Protection Services.

Staffing positions

The proposed budget includes the reduction of 43 staff positions in areas not considered to have an essential county function, such as its Detox and Withdrawal Management Program which serves around 10 people per day on average. If the proposed budget is approved, the program will be closed as of Jan. 1.

“It’s difficult to hire that type of expertise and there are lots of community providers within the metro area that provide detox and withdrawal management successfully to folks,” said Alexandra Kotze, county director of finance. “As part of this, we’re going to spend the next few months working to close down and make sure that the people who need that service are successfully transitioned.”

Additional staffing will include 110 full-time employees in 2026.

That includes the 80 full-time employees hired to help with backlogs affecting access to Medicaid-funded services, and 30.5 full-time employees in 2027.

More information

County service teams will hold budget presentations throughout September. Community members will be able to provide feedback on the proposed budget during public hearings Sept. 22 and Dec. 11 before its expected approval by the county board on Dec. 16.

For more information on those presentations, visit ramseycounty.us/content/2026-27-budget-presentations.

To learn more about the proposed budget, go to ramseycounty.us/your-government/budget-finance

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

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The massive deck gun that St. Paulites aboard the destroyer USS Ward used to fire the first American salvo of World War II was removed Tuesday from its longtime home on the State Capitol mall in their hometown.

The gun will go to the Minnesota Military & Veterans Museum at Camp Ripley in Little Falls, where it will be painstakingly restored and displayed in a new 20,000-square-foot facility that is expected to open next fall, said Randal Dietrich, the museum’s executive director.

Loaned to the state of Minnesota by the U.S. Navy in 1958, the gun has begun to show its age in recent years. State officials opted to transfer the 11,000-pound piece of ordnance to the museum after a monthslong review process, which included a public comment period that found broad public support for the move.

That process culminated Tuesday morning — the 80th anniversary of the official end of WWII — in a removal ceremony that involved family members of Ward sailors.

Naval reservists from St. Paul were manning the gun on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, when the crew of the Ward spotted a Japanese mini-submarine outside Pearl Harbor. They fired a shot through the sub’s conning tower, sinking the vessel.

Just an hour later, Japanese war planes attacked the naval base at Pearl, drawing the U.S. into the war.

Since it was installed outside the Capitol, the gun has served as the backdrop for countless reunions of World War II veterans, Pearl Harbor Day commemorations and other events.

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With a total of 1,940,869 tickets sold across 12 days, this year’s Minnesota State Fair beat out a number of previous years’ attendance to become the fifth-busiest Fair and the best-attended since before the pandemic.

Last year’s Fair previously held the fifth-busiest spot, with 1,925,904 total tickets sold.

Despite a modestly higher total attendance, this year’s Fair only had one record-breaking day, compared to five last year. Only Monday, Aug. 25, broke an attendance record — and barely so, at that — with 145,022 people showing up to the Fairgrounds, beating the 2017 record by 518 people.

The all-time busiest Fairs were in 2019 and 2018, when total attendance surpassed 2 million.

Good weather

Weather-wise, this year’s Fair was one of the nicest in recent memory. Most days had high temperatures in the upper 70s. No day for the event this year topped 90 degrees, and only two reached highs in the 80s. The Fairgrounds also saw very little rainfall this year: Apart from a trace of precipitation on Aug. 26, only .08 inch of rain fell on Aug. 22, not far off from the all-time driest 2003 Fair with .02 inch of rain.

Last year, tropical humidity and stormy weather on two weekdays of the Fair sunk attendance for those days to about half the usual levels. One particularly bad thunderstorm last year forced the Happy Together Tour show at the Grandstand to be called off and caused overnight damage on the Fairgrounds.

No major crimes were reported at the Fairgrounds this year.

The main gate on Snelling Avenue was closed for a little under an hour and a half on Aug. 30 during a planned march and rally organized by Black Lives Matter Twin Cities Metro. Fairgoers were directed to other gates during the closure, which did not affect activities inside the Fairgrounds.

In a statement Tuesday following the announcement of total 2025 Fair attendance numbers, CEO Renee Alexander invoked the recent shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, which took place during the Fair.

“Even in the shadow of heartbreak, the fair showed its true purpose: bringing Minnesotans together,” she said in the statement. “Over the 12 days, the weather created a beautiful backdrop for people to share traditions, discover new favorites, and celebrate the spirit of our state.”

Admission, other costs

Admission prices to the Fair have risen considerably within the past five years. Tickets for this year’s Get-Together ran $20 for adults, compared to $14 in 2018 and $15 in 2019.

Some Grandstand shows are getting more expensive, too. Most tickets are in the $50 to $100 range, and since 2023, one or two acts a year have charged over $200 for the best seats in the house. This year’s Def Leppard concert, for which regular tickets ranged from $77 to $292, was the priciest show in Fair history — and, as our critic Ross Raihala points out in his review, more than triple the cost of Def Leppard tickets at the Grandstand 25 years ago.

For what it’s worth: At the 1925 Fair, 100 years ago, the admission price was 75 cents, or about $13.70 in today’s money. Total attendance for what was then an eight-day Fair was reported at 441,232, making average daily attendance less than a third of this year’s Fair.

With Labor Day 2026 not falling until Sept. 7 — the latest that the first-Monday holiday can be — next year’s State Fair is set to begin Aug. 27.

A giant green inflatable alien is carried thought the crowd on Judson Ave. at the Minnesota State Fair in Falcon Heights on Friday, Aug. 23, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

2025 State Fair by the numbers

The Fair’s creative activities and agricultural competitions, from livestock to flowers to canned fruits, accepted more than 35,000 entries and awarded about $2 million in prize money, according to Fair officials. The popular crop art exhibition drew 449 entries across all classes and age groups.

In the Fine Arts Center, out of 2,836 artworks submitted for consideration, 336 pieces were exhibited during the Fair.

At the Miracle of Birth Center, 142 animals were born, including 10 calves, 106 piglets and 26 lambs.

The largest pumpkin exhibited at this year’s Fair weighed in at 1,511.0 pounds and was shown by Alexander Bogie of Ham Lake. (It was a clear winner: No other pumpkin even topped 1,000 pounds.)

Daily attendance

And here are the daily attendance numbers, with comparisons to the 2024 Fair:

• Thursday, Aug. 21: 137,148 (1,727 fewer than last year).

• Friday, Aug 22: 153,988 (17,245 fewer than last year).

• Saturday, Aug. 23: 198,863 (14,299 more than last year).

• Sunday, Aug. 24: 184,176 (49,532 more than last year).

• Monday, Aug. 25: 145,022 (64,476 more than last year; a new record for the day).

• Tuesday, Aug. 26: 132,553 (7,776 more than last year).

• Wednesday, Aug. 27: 114,932 (30,599 fewer than last year).

• Thursday, Aug. 28: 125,924 (44,693 more than last year).

• Friday, Aug. 29: 180,520 (45,001 fewer than last year).

• Saturday, Aug. 30: 222,800 (15,722 more than last year).

• Sunday, Sept. 31: 194,501 (61,514 fewer than last year).

• Monday, Sept. 1: 150,442 (25,447 fewer than last year).

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Washington County is now accepting applications for community-based projects to help combat the opioid crisis.

Money for the 2026 projects will come from the county’s opioid-settlement funds, money received from pharmaceutical companies that made and sold opioid painkillers; the money must be used to deal with the opioid issues, including detailed programs and strategies focused on treatment, prevention and harm reduction.

The county this year funded eight community-based projects, totaling $520,000, including a $37,348 grant to Thrive Family Recovery Resources that supported the implementation of two Strengthening Families Program workshops this year. Other recipients include: YourPath, ShelettaMakesMeLaugh, WayMakers to Recovery, Wellshare International, Elim Lutheran Church, Change the Outcome and Invisible Wounds Project.

Up to $700,000 of the county’s opioid-settlement funding will be distributed for 2026 projects. This funding is open to everyone — organization or individuals.

Washington County officials expect to receive $11.5 million over an 18-year period in opioid-settlement funds, said Rolando Vera, who is overseeing the opioid settlement process for Washington County Public Health & Environment.

For more information, go to WashingtonCountyMN.gov/OpioidSettlementFunding. The deadline to apply is 4:30 p.m. Oct. 10.

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