Council amends and adopts $1.7M change in traffic warehouse accounting; local option sales tax funding clarified

The St. Paul City Council adopted an amendment and then approved a resolution amending the 2025 spending budget in the Department of Public Works traffic warehouse accounting to reflect additional capital local option sales tax activity.

During the public hearing on Resolution 20-566, resident John Purdy raised a numeric error in the packet’s financial analysis and asked whether local option sales tax proceeds would be commingled. Mr. Purdy asked why a line showed a parenthetical negative when it should have been positive and expressed concern about the identity of funds coming from the 1% local option sales tax.

Sean Kershaw, director of Public Works, addressed the concern and explained there had been an error in the original presentation that was corrected by the amendment. Kershaw said the warehouse account is used in city accounting to move money in and out to buy equipment for projects, but that the local option sales tax money is only spent on the 24 projects identified by voters and is not commingled.

The council first approved an amendment to remove an item about Rondo neighborhood renaming signage and adjusted the financial analysis accordingly; the amendment passed by roll call. The council then closed the public hearing and adopted the resolution as amended with six votes in favor and no opposition recorded.

The director stated staff would continue to ensure accounting separation between the local option sales tax program and other city accounts and thanked the resident for pointing out the presentation error; staff attached supporting photos and a corrected fiscal analysis to the record.