September 18, 2025
I hope you’re enjoying this season as summer winds down and we return to school, resume our routines and dig through the closet, trying to remember what on earth we wore five months ago.
Here at the City Council, fall means the beginning of crafting our budget for 2026. This is one of our most important responsibilities, and it’s one that my Council colleagues and I take very seriously.
This year, our budget process will be more important than ever - because this is a particularly intense moment in our history. We are in deep community pain and mourning in the wake of the horrible violence at Annunciation School. We are at a moment when cities are under scrutiny, under threat and in some cases, under siege - by our own government. And we are at a moment when trust is at an all-time low - trust in our laws, our government, our educational institutions, our media, and our own ability as a society to solve our most wicked problems.
These are daunting challenges, but in St. Paul, we don’t get daunted - we get motivated. And our Council is motivated right now to use our budget to rebuild trust in our city and what we can achieve at the local level. We can rebuild trust by what our budget looks like and how we create it.
Our budget must meet basic needs of our community - for affordable housing, good jobs, safe and clean parks, rec center and libraries, thriving small businesses, streets and bike lanes that are safe and well-maintained. We need public health measures to combat the opioid crisis, strong staffing in our police and fire departments, and well-funded District Councils to engage our neighbors. We need to double-down on downtown revitalization and economic development here in the Midway and citywide.
And we need to heed the call from our neighbors and businesses to keep taxes as low as possible. As budgets are getting tighter for every family, every senior on a fixed income, every college grad staring down debt, our budget needs to be tight too.
How we create the budget is just as important as what’s in it if we want to rebuild trust. As Council President, I am committed to running a budget process that is inclusive, transparent and reliable. We will listen - really listen - to what’s on your minds, starting with our budget community meeting on Sept. 16 and my Ward 2 budget meeting on Sept. 30 and continuing until our final vote in December. We will pass a final budget on time and with clarity about what’s in it and what’s not. We will communicate clearly and directly with the Mayor, the administration and the public throughout the process. That’s how we’ll build a budget that also rebuilds trust.
I hope you’ll be part of this process - by attending our community meetings, following our department budget presentations every Wednesday at 10 am, and letting me and my colleagues know what you want to see in next year’s budget.
Together, I believe we can pass a budget that is both responsible and responsive, effective and efficient, that shows care for our community today and the people who will call our city home in the future.