The St. Paul City Council on Wednesday likely will set the 2015 maximum property tax levy at $103,636,842, which represents a 2.4 percent increase over this year's tax collection.
How did they arrive at that figure? It's the number that Mayor Chris Coleman put down in his proposed budget, which he presented to the council last month.
Under Minnesota law, all taxing jurisdictions must set a ceiling for the following year's levy by the end of September. Once they've decided on a maximum levy, they can shrink the levy but they can't raise it.
About three-fourths of the tax levy goes to fund city operations. Last year, the City Council also adopted Coleman's recommendation: a zero percent increase.
The levy that Coleman proposes would raise taxes by $16 on a median-valued St. Paul home of $145,000. But a homeowner's final tax bill also will include additional taxes due to property value shifts from the commercial to the residential side, and whatever tax changes are made by Ramsey County and the school district.
Two weeks ago, the Ramsey County Board agreed not to increase the tax levy for next year, capping collections at $276.6 million. The St. Paul school board is scheduled to makes its levy decision Tuesday.
