Taking its cue from St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter’s budget proposal, the city council on Wednesday set the property tax levy limit at 7.9%, as the mayor had proposed in August. That means the 2025 property tax levy — the sum total of all property taxes — cannot increase by more than 7.9% when the final figures are approved by the council in December, though the limit drew a last-minute request from one council member seeking to push it higher.

Council Member Anika Bowie said there were many things in Carter’s budget proposal to like, from housing initiatives to new library services, but increasing the limit to 8.1% would offer some financial wiggle room to explore funding other council priorities, such as a reparative justice commission.

Carter’s spending proposal was “thoughtful and definitely focused on addressing housing and improving downtown safety,” Bowie told the council just before the vote, but it lacked spending to fund the work of the new Black reparations commission created by the previous city council.

Bowie noted a higher limit would allow room to explore “some of the mayor’s priorities and also our own initiatives,” without ruling out finding savings elsewhere in the budget by December.

Council members Nelsie Yang, Cheniqua Johnson and Rebecca Noecker each responded that they could not support the further increase, and Bowie then withdrew her proposed spending amendment.

“I am very committed to bringing down the levy before December,” Yang said. “One of the things that I constantly hear (from constituents) is that they are very tax burdened. Many of these folks are refugees and immigrants from working class families.”

Johnson said she hoped there was another way to find $250,000 to support the work of the reparations commission. “A lot of the individuals I’m talking to in my community are complaining about property taxes,” she said. “When it comes to property taxes we’ve got to do what we can to cut where we can.”

Council President Mitra Jalali said “members want to fund even more priorities, and they also want to keep the levy down.”

The council on Wednesday also approved maximum property tax levies for the city’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority and library system.

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