St. Paul gets more cops and more taxes

The City of Saint Paul will be raising taxes and bringing in new police officers while keeping the libraries open. The St. Paul City Council unanimously passed the 2007 budget at their meeting on Wednesday.

The budget for 2007 will bump taxes up by 8.57 percent  which is less than the 10 percent levy increase originally anticipated and add 26 new police officers. These changes come from a $1.4 million shift in sales tax from the STAR program’s investment in neighborhood and cultural programing.
The STAR money which is designed to enhance St. Paul’s key neighborhoods and cultural events was identified by Council Member Pat Harris, who pointed to the current budget troubles as a reason for redirecting the funds. The STAR funds, which are mostly allotted through a competitive bidding process, will only have $2.2 million dollars for both cultural and neighborhood improvements. The two pots of money are separate and the city council members each have a small amount of money to work with as it is beneficial to their ward.

The current police department is allotted 576 sworn officers and the 5 percent increase will mean more officers on the streets. St. Paul, while it hasn’t had the same difficulties as Minneapolis in the recent years, has been feeling the pinch in the lack of patrol officers.

This shift is also what will allow the St. Paul Public Libraries to maintain their current hours. While the library will be able to maintain it’s current total hours it will continue shifts that it has begun making over the past year closing neighborhood libraries on Sundays, and will be opening the downtown library on Sundays. They’ll also be be adding self-check out stations to the libraries and adding wireless internet connectivity.

This shift will add about $90 to the yearly property taxes for the median home in the city.

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