MINNEAPOLIS — The Hennepin County Board on Tuesday approved a 5.5% increase to the 2025 property tax levy, which will raise more than $1 billion in revenue accounting for roughly a third of the overall budget.
The 5.5% figure will be split between county operations (4.5%) and Hennepin Healthcare (1%). It's a slightly lower figure than the 6.5% tax hike approved for 2024, which was the largest in years.
Hennepin County Commissioner Kevin Anderson said the county — which has the largest budget in Minnesota outside of the state government — is increasingly strained by inflation and expiring COVID funding.
"We received substantial money with that and were able to do a lot of really amazing things: Supportive housing, programs for broadband availability, and economic and workforce development," Anderson said in an interview. "Those dollars are expiring and in order to continue that we have to transfer some of that onto property tax."
The 5.5% levy is roughly on par with the 4.75% levy set for Ramsey County in 2025, but it's also lower than the proposed increases of 7.9% in the city of Saint Paul and 8.1% in Minneapolis.
According to Hennepin County data, the median homeowner valued at roughly $390,000 would pay an extra $44 next year.
"We know this is probably the hardest part of the job, is asking people for their money. We take it really seriously," Anderson said. "I think this is something where we are always trying to find that balance. We know there are people on fixed incomes, and those are the people most likely turning to the county for support."