Cook County Board passes 5% levy increase for 2025

In a 3-2 vote, the Cook County Board of Commissioners passed a budget for 2025 that would establish a levy increase of 5%.

After weeks of discussion about how to approach the question of saving for future projects versus lowering the initial 9.81% levy increase set in September, the board finalized the budget at the Dec. 17 meeting, their final regular business meeting for the year.

Between September and the Dec. 17 meeting, some changes had been proposed to the budget to bring the levy increase down to 7.68%. Throughout the budget talks, however, the board had repeatedly stated that the goal increase was 5%. To bring the levy increase down to that goal, the board made two major decisions; reconsidering the need for an appraisal of the Boundary Waters in 2025, and the use of Payment in Lieu of Taxes money.

BWCAW appraisal funds

The commissioners opted to remove an appraisal of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness from the 2025 budget. That item aimed to address changes in the assessed value of the BWCAW from the federal government. The BWCAW is appraised every 10 years, and several Minnesota counties contested the appraisal in 2018, leading the county to consider setting aside money for its own appraisal before the scheduled 2028 evaluation. $18,900 was earmarked in the 2025 budget for that assessment. The board opted to remove funding for the appraisal from next year’s budget after learning on Dec. 13 that U.S. Senator Tina Smith would be introducing an item at the federal level that could change the current amount that the county collects in PILT money for the BWCAW.

Using PILT money

The other decision that brought the levy increase down to 5% was the use of $307,691 in saved PILT money. The motion to draw from that pool of money was made by Commissioner Dave Mills. Throughout the meeting Commissioner Stacey Johnson advocated for cutting from the budget, rather than using the saved funds. Johnson said that she did not support using that money for ongoing expenses, like staffing. Over the past several weeks Johnson has consistently stated that she favored a more conservative approach that would preserve more of the funds that the county has set aside, saying that with several large projects on the horizon, she felt it made more sense to cut budget items than use saved money. She was joined in her concern by Commissioner Deb White, who also expressed her opposition to spending down the PILT funds.

Mills said that he was confident that the county would be able to absorb the ongoing costs over-time, which he described as a “weaning off” from relying on PILT money after the initial use this year. He cited the county’s previous increase in staffing costs after a compensation study, which was first paid for with reserved funds, before being incorporated into the levy increase at a more gradual rate. Commissioner Ann Sullivan described the approach as a “glide path.”

Sullivan and Mills were joined by Commissioner Ginny Storlie in voting to approve the 2025 budget with a 5% increase by removing $18,900 in the form of the BWCAW appraisal from the budget, and using $307,691 from the PILT fund to lower the levy. Johnson and White voted against the motion.

Kirsten Wisniewski December 17, 2024