Maple Grove Council Approves Preliminary 7% Tax Levy Hike
Have you opened up your property tax bill? Some property owners are noticing a double digit increase.
What We Know
The Maple Grove City Council approved a preliminary budget this week with a proposed levy increase of 6.96 percent. That is actually lower than the average levy increase of 8.56 percent based on preliminary data from other peer cities.
Impact on Homeowners
For the average valued home of roughly $430,000 in Maple Grove, the proposed nearly 7 percent increase would amount to about a $60 increase in city property taxes next year.
City taxes account for about a quarter of a Maple Grove resident’s property tax bill, according to Greg Sticha, the city’s finance director. The school district accounts for the most – 39 percent – while Hennepin County has a 31 percent piece of the tax pie.
Why Some Have Higher Tax Bills
Sticha points out that home values that significantly increase often lead to larger increases in property taxes.
During Monday’s city council meeting, multiple residents wondered about their double-digit increases, in some cases 16 percent to 19 percent higher than last year.
Sticha said that if your home value has gone up significantly more than the roughly 1 percent average increase in value, you will be paying more.
Maple Grove Mayor Mark Steffenson also noted that commercial and industrial property values have gone down overall, pushing more of the burden to residential property owners.
Financial Pressures on Cities
Like many homeowners, cities are facing their own inflationary pressures.
For example, Maple Grove needs to replace an aging fire truck, a significant expenditure. Steffenson said the original estimate was $1.25 million, but it now will cost $2.5 million.
“The last four to five years have not seen normal, ordinary inflationary increases, especially in capital items like that,” said Steffenson.
Higher costs have created a challenging situation for cities trying to keep taxes low.
“We’re doing what we can do to limit some of those capital expenditures,” said Steffenson at Monday’s meeting. “I know our fire department isn’t necessarily happy with us right now, because we’re telling them ‘no’ … you can’t get all these new scheduled trucks because we can’t afford to place that burden on people. That’s one of the frustrations we have.”
What Next
The Maple Grove City Council is expected to approve a final budget at its Dec. 16 meeting.
Full budget details can be found here on the city’s website.
Related: Maple Grove Preliminary 2025 Budget Includes Deputy Police Chief Hire
