St. Cloud Mayor’s Preliminary 2027 Budget Would Add $146 To Median Property Tax Bill

(KNSI) – St. Cloud Mayor Jake Anderson delivered his preliminary 2027 budget and tax levy to the city council Monday night, a proposal that would add about $146 a year to the property tax bill on a median-valued home.

The city puts the median home in St. Cloud at $252,700.

General fund revenue for 2027 is budgeted at $81,730,100. Taxes account for 66.16% of that. Departments submitted about $10 million in requests. Anderson’s proposal funds about $692,000 of it, turning down new vehicles, first responder drones, tree-trimming equipment and 15 of the 17 full-time positions departments asked for.

“Those are all things that we need, but we can’t afford right now, and we have to balance a reasonable budget versus what those needs are.”

This is Anderson’s second consecutive budget carrying an increase. The council unanimously approved a 4.49% increase for 2026, the city’s first in two decades. He spoke with KNSI News as he left city hall and said he doesn’t take putting the budget together lightly.

“I feel bad about raising people’s property taxes, especially those that are struggling. That weighs on me as I think about folks that I campaigned and told me they were struggling month to month, paycheck to paycheck.”

Asked what would happen if the council held the line and adopted no increase at all, Anderson did not hedge.

“We’d have to cut staff. You’d be buying no new snow blowers or snow plows. You would see impacted service in police and streets and fire.”

He said cutting positions only moves the work onto whoever is left, making more departures likely, and pointed to Minneapolis and St. Paul as cities raising taxes and cutting staff at the same time.

The percentage increase looks bigger than the dollar increase feels, and the reason is fire.

The operating side of the budget carries a 3.75% increase to the tax rate. The voter-approved fire referendum is separate, riding on the city’s debt levy, and adds $2 million in additional debt for 2027, pushing the rate up another 2.69%. Together that is a 6.44% increase to the tax rate.

The dollar impact is still smaller than last year’s. For pay 2026, the median homeowner saw a $330 increase, 70% of it fire. For pay 2027, the increase is $146, 41% of it fire. The heaviest share of the referendum’s cost landed on the first year’s bills.

The budget adds two of the 17 requested positions, including a building and facilities director. Anderson said the city needs the job to standardize and centralize contracts across its aging building stock, and expects it will pay for part of itself in savings. It draws from both property taxes and enterprise funds, so part of the cost shows up on utility bills rather than tax statements.

A temporary 10% cut to the citywide supplies and services budget, first imposed in 2025, stays in place for a third straight year. Anderson said it affects training and similar spending.

Two pressures drive the rest. Personnel accounts for 83% of the property tax budget, and cost-of-living adjustments raise that cost every year. About 53% of the city’s fleet is beyond its 20-year life cycle, down from the upper 50s a year ago, with a target of 49% in the 2027 budget. Anderson has said the equipment backlog will outlast his term and could take 10 to 15 years to clear.

The full proposal is posted on the city’s website. A public hearing follows August 31st, and the council must certify a preliminary maximum levy by September 30th. The truth in taxation hearing and final levy vote are set for early December. The preliminary maximum is a ceiling, so December’s number can come in lower, but not higher.

Annual increase by estimated market value: