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Edina council delays decision on 2025 budget and 13.14% preliminary levy after heated public hearing
Summary
City finance staff presented a proposed 13.14% levy increase (staff said 5.46 points fund public-safety expansions); after extensive public testimony and council questioning the council voted to postpone a final levy and budget adoption to Dec. 17 to allow more review of reductions and structural options.
Edina’s proposed 2025 budget and a preliminary 13.14% property‑tax levy took center stage Dec. 3, when staff outlined options to reduce the increase and dozens of residents urged the council to cut the proposed levy. After public testimony and detailed council questions, the council voted to postpone adoption until Dec. 17.
Finance director (self‑identified in the hearing) presented the numbers and said roughly 5.46 percentage points of the 13.14% increase are related to expanded public‑safety staffing and new debt service for the second fire station. Staff also presented several options that could reduce the levy if the council chooses them: pay for a zoning‑code update from reserves (estimated levy savings 0.46%), reallocate design costs for a cold‑storage site (0.55%), delay replacement of Lewis Park shelter ($900,000; ~1.65%), delay hiring paramedic firefighters (savings estimated $450,000; ~0.83%), or enact a 1% across‑the‑board general‑fund service reduction (roughly $545,000; ~1.0%).
Numerous residents urged the council to find savings. “You could have said, ‘Edina, we are holding our budget flat,’ ” said Liz Ross, who said rising county taxes and household costs make a large municipal increase untenable. Others urged preserving public safety and services even while finding pruning elsewhere.
Council members pressed staff for clarifying detail about assessment timing, opportunities to reduce capital equipment purchases and how proposed reductions would affect services and later years. City assessor Sheila Storzinger explained the statutory timing of assessments and why market‑value changes and tax bills do not align in the same calendar year.
Faced with strong public sentiment for restraint and numerous structural questions, the council voted to continue final action on the 2025 levy, the 2025 operating budget and the 2025–2030 capital improvement plan to the Dec. 17 council meeting to give staff time to return with specific options and analyses.
Finance staff estimated the impact on the median Edina home would be about $281 per year under the proposed levy — roughly $23.81 per month — given current value projections, a figure staff used to illustrate levy impacts; the council did not adopt a final levy on Dec. 3.
Council members signaled a desire for a year‑round structural review of costs and revenue choices, including a systematic evaluation of major cost centers and alternatives for long‑term capital funding.
