St. Paul City Council to trim $1.2M from Carter's budget proposal

Dec. 8—The St. Paul City Council trimmed next year's proposed property tax levy Wednesday by $1.2 million, largely by putting the mayor's grant relief program for low-income homeowners on hold.

The revised budget includes funding for two police academies next year instead of one, an added $1.04 million expense backed by federal American Rescue Plan dollars, with the one-time funds for the second academy to sit in a contingency account that will be controlled by the city council and the mayor's office until the St. Paul Police Department has exhausted other resources.

Rather than expand the police department, the goal is to attempt to keep pace with heavy attrition and replenish officer ranks depleted by retirements.

The city property tax levy — or the total sum of property taxes collected citywide — will increase 6.17 percent to $175.37 million, instead of 6.92 percent as proposed by Mayor Melvin Carter in his budget presentation last August. The city council last summer had asked the mayor's office to aim for no more than a 2 percent to 4 percent increase.

The overall 2022 budget is $324.2 million, down from $325.6 million in the mayor's initial proposal, before special grants.

SAFETY, HOUSING, JOBS

Council members were largely on board with the final budget, which was approved Wednesday 7-0.

"The big buckets were neighborhood safety, housing and jobs," said Carter, addressing the media after the council vote. "We've had lots of conversations around the peaks and dips in our current staffing model. The St. Paul Police Department received by far the highest infusion of new investments. That was the case even before the second police academy."

The police department's authorized strength this year is 620 officers. Not including 61 people currently going through the department's academy, there are 553 officers on the payroll.

"We've had to dissolve our problem property unit and our traffic enforcement unit, at times when people are speeding through our neighborhoods," said city council member Jane Prince, noting she objected to leaving the final decision over a second police academy in the hands of the mayor but still supported the overall budget. "People who are speeding must know that we don't have traffic enforcement because it's out of control. We're at a point where the public understands that we don't have enough cops."

Council member Dai Thao told his fellow council members that while many of his constituents would have liked an even smaller tax levy increase, "I feel good we've done our due diligence," he said. "We're maintaining city services throughout the pandemic. ... There's a lot of things we still need to work through."

The owner of a median-value home in St. Paul — $228,700 — can expect the city portion of their property taxes to increase $126 next year, or $162 after fees, with wide variation by neighborhood. Some of the heaviest increases will be on the city's East Side due to property value changes.

OTHER SPENDING PRIORITIES

Other spending priorities in the city budget will be funded through a mix of federal ARP dollars and the city levy, including:

— Fully restoring cuts to parks and libraries that rolled out at the onset of the pandemic in 2020.

— Housing funds totaling $37.5 million will be set aside to create "deeply affordable" housing targeted to households earning no more than 30 percent of area median income, or $31,450 for a family of four. The city's department of Planning and Economic Development will recommend how those dollars will be spent.

— A $1.6 million Neighborhood Development Fund to support small businesses.

— $250,000 for digital speed boards, pedestrian safety signs and other capital expenditures related to traffic calming.

— Two communications specialists will be added to the mayor's staff.

— Re-establishing a tree-trimming cycle in city neighborhoods.

The city's capital improvement budget will devote $32 million over the next two years to the makeover of the Hamline-Midway Library, a new North End Community Center and a replacement for Fire Station No. 7, which is currently located on Ross Avenue south of Phalen Boulevard.

The budget makes continued investments in the Office of Neighborhood Safety and a Community First Public Safety initiative aimed at offering alternatives to police response where appropriate.

Among those initiatives, the St. Paul Fire Department will launch a rapid-response team to embed social workers and mental health counselors to accompany them on service calls from frequent-fliers — vulnerable adults who sometimes require assistance several times a day due to addictions or behavioral issues.

The goal is "so we can lighten the load for our fire department and the police department," said city council president Amy Brendmoen. "The fire department is taking that under their wing." The investment totals $600,000.

The 2022 budget does not set aside funds for implementing a rent-control ballot initiative approved by voters a month ago. The rent-control mandate, which takes effect in May, caps annual rent increases at 3 percent. "We are absolutely going to implement this ordinance. We're going to implement it well," said Carter, noting the city is assembling work groups to study implementation. Going beyond that "would be playing with dollars and that's not how we approach the budget."

Pointing specifically to a new $100,000 graffiti and plywood removal program, city council member Rebecca Noecker, who represents commercial corridors such as downtown, West Seventh Street and the West Side, praised the budget for including "bread-and-butter basic maintenance needs that we can sometimes overlook when we're just looking at the big picture" and "putting in specific line items for those services."

The council found nearly $400,000 in staff savings when their proposal to allow administrative citations — or new fines for breaking city ordinances — effectively died in discussions before the St. Paul Charter Commission. Two Planning and Economic Development staff members that would have been funded through the city's general fund will remain supported financially by the Housing and Redevelopment Authority budget.

HOMEOWNERS PROPOSAL TABLED

Another $600,000 in savings would come from tabling the mayor's proposal to offer $500 grants to 1,000 low-income homeowners to help offset their property taxes.

Council members said they would revisit the proposal next year, but several members felt that raising taxes to help lower their burden would be inappropriate and the grant program would reach only a fourth of those who qualify, at best.

Instead, they're hoping to team up with Ramsey County officials to better publicize a series of refunds and exclusions that could save thousands of dollars per property owner. That and other property tax refunds amount to $25 million in uncollected dollars in Ramsey County alone.

Mara H. Gottfried contributed to this report.