The St. Louis County board held a public meeting at the Duluth courthouse on Monday to provide citizens with the opportunity to learn more about the 2025 budget and give feedback. St. Louis County includes just over 200,000 people within 72 townships, 75 unorganized townships, 27 cities, and portions of two tribal nations.

The expected county budget for 2025 will be approximately $505,605,519. Of this budget, 35.7% is from the tax levy. This is a 7.23% increase from last year, which the board says will be offset by the county’s tax base.

“We continue to have a broader tax base. We continue to see new construction, and new growth in St. Louis County,” explained St. Louis County Administrator Kevin Gray. “And that always helps as we, if you will, through the property taxes that we’ve got for collecting our taxes and utilizing those revenues. More people are able to pay in. It’s a win for everybody.”

At Monday’s meeting, Gray and Deputy Director BreAnn Graber explained that assuming the value of the home is the same from one year to the next, the homeowner will see a decrease in the county portion of their property taxes. Duluthian Donna Pickle voiced her concern about the accuracy of this assumption.

“I kind of think that’s misleading because we own our home for like 30 years. And most of the time, the assessment goes up. So I think that bulletin there is kind of real misleading,” said Pickle. “Your taxes, I believe, are based on the assessment of your property, and usually, the assessment goes up. So for them to say that it might go down, I just don’t really trust that.”

According to the county, around 3/4 of the levy increase is for salary benefits and health insurance for their current workforce. The levy also reflects community programming, economic development, inflationary impacts, and strategic investments in personnel.

There will be a public listening session on Tuesday from 9:30 am to 10 am at the Duluth courthouse. The 2025 budget will be formally adopted on December 17. Once this happens, the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report will be available online. Previous budgets can also be found at this link.