Brooklyn Center set a property tax levy increase under 5% during last year\u2019s budget cycle, which led the city to eliminate multiple staff positions and reduce hours for others despite collecting more from taxpayers. It is possible this year\u2019s hike could be more substantial.<\/p>\n
At a Sept. 28 meeting, the Brooklyn Center City Council voted to approve a 7.08% maximum tax levy increase for property owners in the city. Over the next few months, the council will hear from department heads to determine what cost-cutting measures could be taken to reduce next year\u2019s proposed budget. The exact percentage for 2027 will be approved when the budget is finalized in mid-December.<\/p>\n
The council did not make any immediate changes to the proposed budget, which Finance Director Nicole Hegge outlined during the Sept. 28 budget discussion.<\/p>\n
In total, Hegge proposed a preliminary budget of $35.92 million and a maximum property tax levy increase of 7.08% for 2027. After some discussion, the council voted 4-1 to approve the preliminary budget as proposed. Council Member Laurie Ann Moore was the sole vote against the motion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot support 7.08%. I’ve been pretty transparent about that,\u201d Moore said. \u201cI think we could have come in even lower than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Council Member Kris Lawrence-Anderson noted she would like to see a lower property tax levy than the maximum they set before the county\u2019s Sept. 30 deadline.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m just feeling a little uninformed as far as all the budgets, but because we have a statutory deadline, I’ll accept this percentage\u2026 I’m not happy with it. I think we can cut,\u201d Lawrence-Anderson said.<\/p>\n
Much of the 2027 budget increase is due to personnel-related costs. As proposed, the budget would give city employees cost-of-living adjustments and create five new positions \u2014 four duty crew firefighters and one embedded social worker.<\/p>\n
Moore acknowledged that investments in the fire department alone would account for a notable property tax levy increase. She estimated 6%.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have liked to have seen a starting point at 6%. I don’t think that we’re going to be hiring an embedded social worker. I don’t know, legally, how that’s all going to work. I would like to have seen it at 6% to start with,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n
Council Member Dan Jerzak noted he is \u201cusually very, very conservative financially\u201d but argued the fire department is in need of increased staffing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey’re at a breaking point where they need to relieve the individuals who so gallantly respond to those calls at all hours out of the morning. I think this will help,\u201d Jerzak said. \u201cSo, with that comment, I will be supporting the preliminary number.\u201d<\/p>\n
City documents noted that Brooklyn Center will receive $1.53 million worth of local government aid from the state in 2027. That is $583,912 more than its larger neighbor, Brooklyn Park.<\/p>\n
Multiple factors contribute to Minnesota\u2019s LGA distribution, though it is largely based on a city\u2019s expenditure need compared to its ability to pay. Other variables include a city\u2019s population, commercial tax base and the age of its housing stock.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s possible that federal grants could also be factored into the 2027 budget by the time it is finalized.<\/p>\n
Brooklyn Center property owners saw a tax levy increase of 4.78% following last year\u2019s budget process \u2014 the lowest increase in recent years. A 7.9% increase was approved for 2025 and a 7.2% increase was approved for 2024.<\/p>\n
Brooklyn Center is still months away from setting its final budget and the associated property tax levy increase. Departments will present their budgets to council in early November, and the city is scheduled to adopt its final budget Dec. 14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Center set a property tax levy increase under 5% during last year\u2019s budget cycle, which led the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,39456,39463,134887,100,99,29032,39474,134889,39462,39454,102924,5800,9,24,134888,63,7754,134890],"class_list":["post-363266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-center-city-council","tag-brooklyn-center-council","tag-brooklyn-center-fire","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-council-member","tag-dan-jerzak","tag-embedded-social-worker","tag-kris-lawrence-anderson","tag-laurie-ann-moore","tag-levy","tag-minnesota","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nicole-hegge","tag-nyc","tag-property-taxes","tag-social-worker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}