Taxes could rise more than 15%
10/13/2005
BY PATRICK SWEENEY
Pioneer Press
Preliminary tax levies set by St. Paul, Ramsey County and the St. Paul school district would add up to property tax increases for homeowners of more than 15 percent next year, according to a new projection by the nonpartisan research staff of the Minnesota House.
Projections for St. Paul and several other Minnesota cities were prepared for House Minority Leader Matt Entenza, DFL-St. Paul. In a series of news conferences Wednesday, Entenza charged that Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s no-new-taxes policy is driving up local property taxes.
The forecast for St. Paul’s double-digit property tax increase takes into account increases in home values as well as the maximum tax levies set last month by local units of government. The levies can go down, but not up, when the city, county and school district set final levies in December.
The owner of a hypothetical low-value St. Paul home — a property that had a taxable value of $108,000 last year and $122,000 this year — would face a 19.6 percent increase in the spring, according to the projection.
Taxes on a high-value home worth $367,000 would increase an estimated 15.7 percent.
Small increases in the value of commercial and industrial property in St. Paul lower the estimated overall increase in property taxes to 13.8 percent.
“There was no need for property taxes to go up by double-digit amounts,” Entenza said. “But a so-called no-new-taxes pledge, instead, is a raising-of-property-taxes pledge.
In response, Pawlenty spokesman Brian McClung said property tax increases are mostly the responsibility of local governments, not the Legislature and governor.
“The governor stands with taxpayers who are upset at local units of government that rely on property tax increases,” he said.
McClung challenged Entenza to support a property tax freeze or the mail-in tax challenges that Pawlenty unsuccessfully pushed the Legislature to approve as a means for taxpayers to demand a direct vote on big property tax increases.