Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. ¶¶ © transcript Emily Beynon Thank you.

I'd like to call to order the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners. Roll call, please.

Chapman Singh.

Here.

McGuire. Here. McMurtry. Here. Miller. Here. Moran. Here. Zong. Here. And Ortega.

Aye. Can we stand for the Pledge of Allegiance?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Lan McMahon, which means Commissioner Zong.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Every community owes its existence and vitality to generations from around the world who contributed their hopes, dreams, and energy to making the history that led to this moment. Some were brought here against their will, some were drawn to leave their distant homes in hope of a better life, and some have lived on this land since time immemorial. Truth and acknowledgement are critical to building mutual respect and connection across all barriers of heritage and difference. We are standing on the ancestral lands of the Dakota people. We want to acknowledge the Ojibwe, the Ho-Chunk, and the other nations of people who also call this place home. We pay respects to their elders past and present. Please take a moment to consider the treaties made by the tribal nations that entitle non-native people to live and work on traditional native lands. Consider the many legacies of violence, displacement, migration, and settlement that bring us together here today. And please join us in uncovering such truths at any and all public events. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll entertain a motion on the agenda for August 26, 2026.

So moved. Second.

Seeing no discussion, roll call.

Zhang?

Aye.

Jebin Singh.

Aye.

McGuire. Aye. McMurtry. Aye. Miller. Aye. Moran. Aye. And Ortega.

Aye. I'll entertain a motion on the minutes of August 18, 2026.

So moved. Second.

Seeing no discussion, roll call.

Zhang.

Aye.

Jebin Singh. Aye. McGuire. Aye. McMurtry. Aye. Miller. Aye. Moran. Aye. And Ortega.

Aye. We have a policy item, presentation of the 2027 supplemental budget and performance measures.

Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the board. My name is Ling Becker, and I have the honor to serve as the Ramsey County Manager. I'm going to present the 2027 supplemental budget today for your consideration. As we begin this year's budget conversation, I want to start by acknowledging what we have been through as an organization, and more importantly, thank the people who have carried us through it. Our dedicated employees have remained deeply committed to the work and to the people we serve, even as we have navigated uncertainty, change, and circumstances well beyond our control. Through it all, federal actions, federal shutdown, Operation Metro Surge, and recent encampment responses Our focus as a county has remained steady, maintaining continuity of services, being responsible stewards of public resources, and showing up for our community when it matters the most. Much of the work of county government happens behind the scenes. but its impact is felt every day. It is felt when a family can access critical services that they need. It is felt when our employees answer nearly a million 911 calls a year, when we plow and ensure the safety of nearly 300 miles of county roads, when we serve nearly 10,000 residents a month at our service centers across the county, connecting people to essential services during some of life's most difficult moments, Ramsey County employees show up every day with dedication, creativity, and a deep commitment to serving residents, businesses, and our partners. That context matters in this budget. The decisions before us are not simply about numbers on a page. They are about sustaining services people depend on, supporting the workforce that delivers them. making thoughtful choices in an environment where many of the pressures that we face are out of our control we have been asked to adapt before and we have as we look ahead our responsibility is to build on that resilience protecting what matters most being clear-eyed about the challenges before us and positioning the county to continue to serve our community with strength and stability Ramsey County has more than 20 years of biennial budget experience. That experience gives us an established framework for looking beyond a single year and making thoughtful, longer-term decisions about our resources and the services our community depends on. We are navigating structural cost shifts and significant state and federal funding uncertainty, rising costs for mandated services, and growing pressure on property taxpayers. These are not one-year challenges, and they cannot be solved with one-year fixes. A biennial approach focuses us on looking beyond the simple balancing the next budget it requires us to understand the trajectory that we are on ensure that investments are meeting intended impact and outcomes are addressing the pressures before us before they compound at this moment that long-term view matters our responsibility is not to just to balance the 2027 budget it is to ensure that the choices we make in 2027 are sustainable in 2028 and beyond. As we begin the 2027 supplemental budget, it is important to remember we are not starting from scratch. This supplemental budget is not a new budget. Rather, it gives us an opportunity to revisit the second year of a biennium and make targeted adjustments on what has changed since this budget was adopted. The 2027 budget was approved as part of the 2627 biennial budget and that included a 7.5 property tax levy increase. The 26-27 biennial budget required difficult but responsible choices. We worked to align resources with county core responsibilities while recognizing the financial realities facing this organization and our community. That work included targeted staffing reductions and service adjustments. As we look toward 2027, our focus shifts from making those decisions to ensuring that they are working as intended. This is a performance year for Ramsey County, an opportunity to evaluate how we are delivering services, understand where adjustments may be necessary, and to ensure our resources continue to be directed where they can have the biggest impact. At the same time, we will continue to work on finalizing our organizational alignment work. After a period of considerable change, 2027 is a year when we begin bringing greater clarity to our final structure, strengthen coordination across the organization, and ensure that our people and resources are aligned to support effective service delivery into the future. Taken together, the supplemental budget is more than making adjustments to the numbers. It is about stability, it is about performance, and it is about alignment. It is about building on the difficult decisions we have already made, measuring how well those decisions are working, and continuing to position Ramsey County to ensure that our residents can rely on us today while we remain financially responsible for the future. As we approach this budget, we are focused on making investments through intentional choices, even when resources are tight. That means being disciplined about where we invest and understanding where we might need to make adjustments and ensuring that every decision is connected to outcomes that we want to achieve for our community. At the center of these decisions is our commitment, excellence in service driven by community and focused on people. Ramsey County is the most diverse county in Minnesota. We serve approximately 550,000 residents, and that work is carried out every day by 4,400 dedicated employees. They are the connection between the priorities reflected in this budget and the services residents experience every day. Our countywide goals of well-being, opportunity, prosperity, and accountability provide the foundation for this work. They are not separate from this budget. They are embedded throughout it. We see them reflected in the strategic investments we make, where we make targeted reductions, and where we transform systems to better serve our residents. That is especially important at a moment when resources are constrained. Every investment comes with a choice, and every choice requires us to be clear about what we are trying to accomplish. Our countywide goals provide that focus. They help us to evaluate not simply what we can afford to do, but where our resources can make the biggest difference. Ultimately, these goals remind us why we are here and who we serve. Behind every budget decision are people, residents who depend on Ramsey County for services, employees that deliver them, and communities that expect us to use public resources responsibly. Our organizational alignment work began more than two years ago as part of the 2025 supplemental budget process with a clear goal, to ensure that Ramsey County's structure supports our priorities, strengthens our service delivery, and positions us to adapt and lead in a changing environment. This work has been a significant part of the biennial budget and represents a deliberate investment in how we operate. A key part of that work has been creating a greater balance between our service teams. including an intentional reduction of the health and wellness service team and the creation of an operations service team. The new organizational structure took effect January 1st of 2026, marking a very important step in that work. But this effort has been more than about where programs, functions, or employees sit on an org chart. Organizations need reporting structures. They create clarity, accountability, and provide support for leaders and employees. But how we do our work is not and cannot be limited by those structures. The needs of our residents do not fit neatly within departments or even service teams, and neither should our response to them. Operational excellence requires us to work across organizational boundaries as one Ramsey County, bringing together different areas of expertise and share responsibility for the outcomes we are trying to achieve. Our structure should enable that work, but not define its limits. As we have implemented this new structure, we have continued to assess where functions are best positioned and where further alignment can strengthen our ability to serve our community. As part of that continued evolution, beginning on January 1st of 2027, Environmental Health will transition to the Economic Growth Community Investment Service Team as a new department renamed as Environmental Services. This move recognizes the connections between environmental health and the broader conditions that contribute to healthy, thriving communities in areas such as parks and recreation and public works. That is what One Ramsey County means. We may have different roles, expertise, and reporting structures, but we share the responsibility for the people and the communities we serve. As we finalize this alignment work, our focus is not simply where the work sits. It is on how we work together, how we show up for one another, and how we deliver the best service to Ramsey County residents. As I mentioned, we are not starting a new budget process. So as we look to 2027, it is important to begin with a recap of the decisions we've already made and the changes our organization has already absorbed. The 26-27 biennial budget required difficult but necessary decisions, including the elimination of 43 field positions in finance, enterprise administrative services, and social services. We had service reductions, including reduced hours at our library in Shoreview, and the closure of the county-operated DTACS facility. Those decisions were significant, and we recognized the impact they had on our employees and across the organization. At the same time, we made intentional investments in our workforce, including classification and compensation investments designed to strengthen our ability to attract, retain, and fairly compensate employees against nine county other government competitor organizations. We also operationalized appropriate response initiative, moving this important work from being funded by one-time American Rescue Plan Act funds into ongoing service delivery. Beginning on January 1, 2027, this work will sit in emergency communications. That is the foundation we bring into 2027. We are not revisiting those decisions already made. Instead, we are building on them while responding to a new set of fiscal and operational realities. We have several new budget drivers that are shaping 2027. While the county anticipated and planned for some of the impacts of federal H.R. 1, the financial consequences continue to grow beyond what was known when the base budget was developed. As additional costs become clear, they are creating new pressures on the 2027 budget and increasing uncertainty into the years ahead. As you have heard in recent weeks, we have needed also to address pressures at the Adult Detention Center to ensure we are meeting our legal responsibility to operate a safe, secure, and compliant Adult Detention Center. Fiscal discipline and strategic investment have to go hand in hand. For 2027, our charge is very clear. Build on the decisions we have already made, address the pressures that are in front of us, and continue finding better, more efficient ways to deliver essential services that residents depend on with the resources that have been entrusted to us. The fiscal environment in which counties operate has changed in a very significant way. The National Association of Counties has described this as the big shift, an unprecedented shift of costs and responsibilities from the federal government to counties in the amount of a trillion dollars over 10 years. This is not simply about receiving fewer federal dollars. In many cases, counties remain responsible for delivering services or responding to the consequences when those services are reduced, even as resources are shifting. NACO has outlined that counties have choices across the counties, and these are what we face. Scale back critical services. Continue providing required services at a greater local cost. increase local taxes or fees, delay investments in infrastructure and resilience, or absorb the longer-term economic and social consequences of underfunded programs. None of these are easy, and none of these happen in isolation. For Ramsey County, these federal changes come at a time when we have already made difficult financial decisions to bring resources and expenditures into greater alignment. We have reduced positions. We have adjusted services. We have reorganized parts of our organization and asked our organization to work differently, and we will continue to do so. At the same time, we have continued to make targeted investments where they are needed to ensure we can maintain our workforce to meet communities' critical needs. The federal cost shifts create an additional layer of unprecedented pressure. Our response cannot be to respond by replacing every federal lost dollar with a local property tax dollar. Nor can we assume that eliminating funding eliminates the underlying need in our community. Instead, We have to be intentional about the choices we have to make ahead. That means understanding what we are required to provide, where we have discretion, where we can operate differently and more efficiently, and where reducing a service could create greater costs or consequences tomorrow. It also means being transparent to our community and with our community about these choices in front of us and the trade-offs that they are going to require. This is where our commitment to fiscal discipline, operational excellence, and One Ramsey County become especially important. We will need to look across this entire organization, not simply within a department or a service team, to determine how we can best use our collective resources and to match up the capacity that we have. Let me share a bit more why the big shift is even more difficult, particularly for Minnesota and for Ramsey County. Minnesota is one of 10 states operating under a state-supervised county-administered model. In practice, that means counties are on the front lines, delivering a wide range of state and federally mandated programs. Changes at the federal level can shift costs and administrative responsibilities downstream to states and counties. For counties, that means implementing new requirements, managing more complex eligibility and compliance processes, responding to increased demand in other parts of the safety net, and absorbing costs that are no longer supported at the same level by our federal and state partners. But counties do not control many of the decisions that determine what those services cost, how those programs are designed, or if they are adequately funded. This creates a fundamental imbalance. Counties are responsible for the outcomes, without controlling many of the resources or policy decisions that drive those outcomes. Even before H.R. 1, The resources available to counties were not keeping pace with the growing costs and complexity of delivering mandated human services. Counties are being asked to do more, administer more, absorb more costs, remain accountable for the results with fewer resources while being limited in our flexibility. Those pressures do not disappear when funding is reduced and responsibilities shift. They show up locally in county budgets, in workforce capacity, in service delivery, in the experience that residents who depend on programs receive, and ultimately in our property tax levies. Local property taxpayers cannot indefinitely backfill declining federal and state-supported mandated services. The long-term solution cannot be simply shift more responsibility and cost to counties. Responsibility, authority, and funding must be aligned. Without that, this model is unsustainable. The impacts of federal H.R. 1 become very real when we translate them to Ramsey County's 2027 budget. Changes to SNAP and Medicaid alone are expected to add $6.2 million in new county costs alone next year. First, implementing changes mandated by federal HR1, including more frequent redeterminations and renewals for medical assistance, will increase the workload for our financial assistance team. Meeting those new requirements while continuing to serve our residents effectively will require an estimated additional 17.5 FTEs, which will cost the county approximately $1 million of new costs in 2027. Second, the federal government is fundamentally changing how SNAP administration is funded. The federal match will fall from 50% to 25%, shifting a substantially greater cost or share of the cost of administering this federally mandated program to state and local governments. Even after approximately $1 million in one-time state assistance for next year, Ramsey County expects to absorb roughly $3 million of additional costs in 2027. Third, beginning in the fourth quarter of 2027, counties could be required to pay a portion of the SNAP benefit themselves. Assuming Minnesota's statewide payment error rate remains above 10%, Ramsey County is planning for a 15% county share, an estimated $2.26 million additional cost in 2027 alone. Add that together and the impact is approximately $6.2 million in 2027. To put that into perspective, these federal changes alone are equivalent of 1.35 percentage points on our property tax levy increase for 2027. This is not $6.2 million in new programs Ramsey County chose to create. It is not $6.2 million in discretionary investments we are deciding to make. It is the federal cost shift, one that moves responsibility of millions of dollars from the federal government onto Ramsey County and ultimately to our local taxpayers. This policy, the policy decisions are made elsewhere, the funding changes are made elsewhere, but the responsibility to implement those decisions and administer these programs and serve residents stays right here with us. That is why we need to be very precise when we talk about spending increases versus a cost shift. A growing county budget does not mean county government is choosing to grow or do more. In this case, a significant portion of our increases reflects Ramsey County being required to pay more simply to fulfill the responsibilities that we already have and are legally required to do. These costs are absorbed by the county, they affect services, and they fall on local taxpayers. Another driver of our 2027 budget is the adult detention center and our responsibility to operate a facility that is safe, secure, and compliant. This is a core county responsibility of county government. We have an obligation to ensure that we have a safe environment for all the individuals who are in our care and custody and for our employees who work in the facility and for the broader community. An independent staffing study identified the need for additional correctional officers to safely operate our adult detention center and to meet the Minnesota Department of Corrections requirements. The staffing model calls for an additional 32 FTEs, including eight unfunded positions. The staffing changes are not an expansion of services. They are a strategic investment in the workforce capacity necessary to safely and efficiently operate the adult detention center while reducing a reliance on costly recurring overtime. After the board action recently on August 4th, committing contingency funds to hire these positions, the Sheriff's Office has notified me that he has closed one of the resident pods within the ADC and thereby reducing staffing needs. This reduction comes as a result of the county's investment in Project Bridge, housing as many as 60 individuals from the ADC over to the Ramsey County Correctional Facility. The Adult Detention Center investments represent a 0.75% increase on our 2027 property tax levy. Now let's take a few minutes to focus on the numbers. The proposed 2027 budget is set at $965.7 million. It is a 4.5% increase over 2026. The proposed property tax levy is $464 million, an increase of $35 million, or 8.25%. Our county program aid has declined slightly at $62.2 million. The regional rail authority is $36 million and will be held at a 0% increase consistent with 2026. The proposed maximum levy for our housing redevelopment authority will be $14.1 million, reduced slightly in compliance with formulas dictated by state law. The proposed budget supports approximately $4,475 million. FTEs across the Ramsey County organization. Let's spend a moment on where the county dollar comes from. The proposed 2027 budget, totaling the $1,965 million, are supported by a mix of local, state, and federal revenues. Property taxes are the largest single source of revenue at $455 million, or 47% of our total revenue. The other half of the county's budget comes from other sources, including intergovernmental revenues, which are primarily state and federal funding, charges for services, which provide another 18%. The remaining revenue comes from use of money, property and sales tax, and also other revenue and taxes, as you can see from the chart. I just want to point out that nearly half of the county's revenue comes from property taxes. When state and federal funding declines and costs are shifted to counties, those costs do not disappear. They increasingly fall on our local taxpayers, regardless of their income or even their ability to pay. I'd like to now share about where the county dollar goes. The proposed overall budget of the $965.7 million supports services residents rely on every day, with the majority dedicated to direct services. Our Health and Human Services is our largest investment at 40%, which is $383 million. That is supporting our critical health, human services, and safety net programs. Public safety represents $281 million, which is another almost 30%. That includes emergency communications, community corrections, the county attorney's office, the Ramsey County Sheriff, and other public safety responsibilities. Together, health and human services and public safety account for nearly 70% of the county's entire budget. The remaining budget supports county operations, public works, libraries, parks, and economic development. The numbers reinforce an important point that I want to call out. The vast majority of county spending is concentrated in core services and responsibilities that directly support the health, safety, and well-being of our community. These services are not optional. They are responsibilities of counties that federal and state law require us to provide. As I have shared, the county administers these services, but we do not have full control over how they are structured, who is eligible, the standards we must meet, what they ultimately must cost to deliver. That limits our flexibility when funding declines and costs increase. We remain responsible for delivering the service, even when resources provided by the state and federal government do not keep pace with the cost of meeting those responsibilities. In looking at the Minneapolis and St. Paul region, Ramsey County has consistently kept levy growth comparatively low within our seven-county metro. Over the past 10 years, Ramsey County's levy increased an average of 4.2% annually, the second lowest rate amongst our metro county peers, behind only Dakota County at 3.6%. This pattern continues over the most recent five-year period as well. Ramsey County averaged 5.2 annual levy growth, again, the second in the lowest in the metro behind Dakota County at 5%. That means that Ramsey County has maintained the second lowest average levy growth in the region over both the 10 and five-year periods shown here. This provides some important context for 2027 that I want to state and also is reflected in our 2026 levy as well. The proposed 8.25 levy increase is above our historical average, reflecting the unusual scale of the cost pressure shifts that we are experiencing. Our long-term record demonstrates sustained fiscal discipline. Ramsey County has consistently held levy growth below most of our metro peers. Let's look at what I'm proposing this morning for our property tax levy increase. I'm recommending that for 2027, a property tax levy increase of 8.25%. This is higher than the 7.5% increase that was originally adopted as part of the 2027 biennial budget. Revising the levy in the second year of a biennial budget, I will say, is a significant departure from Ramsey County's historical practice. The county has done so only one other time before in 2021 in response to the pandemic. This decision reflects the unprecedented fiscal pressures that have emerged since the biennial budget was adopted last year and our need to respond to the circumstances that could not have been fully anticipated at that time. It is important to understand what is driving the 8.25 increase. Our base budget reflected the ongoing costs of delivering services, including rising costs of state-mandated services, planned salary and health care increases, and investments such as appropriate response. On top of those pressures are the significant new costs that I have described to you. Federal H.R. 1 accounts for 1.35 percentage points of the proposed levy increase, with another .75 associated with our adult detention center investments. You'll see that this graph shows a 9.6% levy increase that I have not addressed yet. That actually reflects the full cost pressures identified that we need in 2027. However, a 9.6% levy increase is not acceptable or a sustainable option for taxpayers. Last year, when I recommended a 9.7% increase, this board was clear. That was too high. We cannot exceed an 8.25% levy increase per my recommendation. I believe that must be treated as a firm ceiling as we finalize the 2027 budget. Reaching that target will require us to make some difficult choices, prioritize our most essential responsibilities, identify efficiencies, and determine where spending can be reduced and deferred, which I'll speak to. The needs facing the county are real, but we also have an obligation to recognize the financial pressures facing our residents and businesses and adopt a budget that balances those realities. My recommendation reflects a balance between those two, very real cost pressures facing the county, our responsibility to provide essential mandated services, and the impact that additional property taxes have on our residents and businesses. We cannot and should not solve every budget pressure by turning to the property tax levy. This means that our work does not end when the levy is set at $8.25. Before we ask taxpayers for more, we have an obligation as an organization to demonstrate that we are doing everything we reasonably can within our own organization. Throughout 2027, I am committed to working with our departments to actively manage costs within the resources available to us. We will protect services and capacity of the most critical needs related to health, safety, and well-being of our residents, while also asking every part, and I mean every part, of our organization to look carefully at where we will spend less, where we will work differently, and where we will use existing resources more effectively. This is not about across-the-board cuts. We will be targeted, thoughtful about where we reduce based on the operational needs and the impact it will have on our residents. These are some of the things that we will be working on. We will be limiting hiring and strategically managing vacancies, including cross-training and deploying staff where capacity is needed the most. We need more nimbleness across our staffing. We will reduce unnecessary and discretionary spending, including a greater scrutiny of outside consultant use and other things. We will begin implementing appropriate non-resident fees so people who use county services but do not contribute to the county property tax base pay a more appropriate share of those costs. This will start with our golf fees in 2027. We will reduce technology costs through stronger forecasting, coordinated purchasing, and use our greater purchasing power. We will leverage Workday, our new enterprise resource planning system, to integrate financial and workforce information so that our leaders can have better data to manage resources and to meet these saving requirements that we'll be needing. And we will manage ongoing personnel costs, including me coming to the board to ask for additional tools within our benefits policy, including things such as furloughs when appropriate. None of these actions alone solve the challenge. Together, they demonstrate a discipline that will be required to hold the levy below the level that would otherwise be needed to protect our ability to deliver services. While our immediate focus is on managing the 2027 budget, we also need to be extremely clear-eyed about what is ahead. The fiscal pressures we are experiencing are not temporary. Rather, they are mounting, and many will grow significantly in 2028 and beyond. The impacts of federal HR1 will continue to increase. Reduced federal funding for SNAP administration is currently estimated at an additional $4.23 million in county costs in 2028. Even more significantly, the SNAP benefits cost share is estimated to be another $9.2 million in 2028. Another significant looming pressure that I want to address with you today are the costs associated with the long-term support services funding changes. During the 2025 legislative session, the state included statewide savings of nearly $178 million and established a long-term services and supports advisory council to work towards bending the cost curve for long-term Medicaid waiver programs in Minnesota and to make them more financially sustainable. Many partners, including counties, tribes, providers, advocates, people with lived experience, and the state have come together to explore options and work on a report that will be due to the legislature in December of 2027. If the advisory council is not successful in meeting the goal savings amount or if the legislature does not pass the proposed changes or adjust the current language, the savings will be achieved through a new county cost share for the long-term services and supports and provide rate decreases as well. This essentially shifts costs for services once again to county taxpayers throughout the state. Potential changes to funding for long-term support services could create an additional $5.8 million of pressure in 2028, and that number would continue to grow in future years. Taken together, HR1 impacts, state budget pressures, cost shifts, create an equivalent of what we anticipate will be another 4% to 5% conservatively in property tax pressures heading into 2028. And that is before we consider other county needs as we look to the 28-29 biennium. We also have other significant pressures on the horizon, and you've received board workshops on some of these already. They are associated with the Anoka Metro Regional Treatment Center, as well as our Lake Owasso residents. The Anoka Metro Regional Treatment Center highlights a broader structural challenge. Counties cannot face significant financial responsibilities for outcomes they do not fully control. Counties should not be accountable for helping residents transition safely into community. They should be held accountable. for helping residents transition safely into community. But they should not bear the escalating costs when delays are driven by state capacity, provider and workforce shortages, and a lack of appropriate placements that are outside the county's control. Lake Owasso residents illustrates the challenge of providing a highly regulated 24-hour service where the county has limited flexibility over staffing and care requirements. At the same time, the reimbursement does not keep pace with the full cost of providing care. The result is a structural financial challenge that cannot be solved by simply reducing staffer services. Ramsey County has an obligation to protect the health and safety of our most vulnerable residents, while also needing to address a model where staffing shortages, overtime, reimbursement, and fixed operating costs cannot create recurring general fund exposure for our county. This is why we'll go back here. This is why the decisions we make in 2027 matter beyond a single budget year. We cannot address structural cost shifts with short-term solutions. We will need to manage 2027 responsibly while also positioning the organization for what we know is coming in 2028.

Oops, I'm going to go through here. Sorry, I lost my spot.

Okay, what comes next as we look ahead? This work does not end with the adoption of the 2027 supplemental budget. 2027 is a critical year for shaping Ramsey County's financial future at the legislature. We need to make Ramsey County's voice heard at the Capitol and be clear about the growing fiscal pressures counties are being asked to absorb. We will continue to push back on unfunded and underfunded mandates and advocate for a stronger, more sustainable state-county fiscal partnership. Counties cannot continue to be responsible for implementing state priorities without the adequate resources to deliver them. For Ramsey County, that advocacy will include Establishing a capital complex host program, recognizing the unique responsibilities and costs Ramsey County carries as the home of the state capitol and surrounding state government infrastructure. Ultimately, the advocacy is about protecting Ramsey County taxpayers. When the state shifts costs to counties and does not adequately fund them, those costs do not disappear. They become part of local budgets. We need solutions that appropriately align responsibilities with the funding of them. At the same time, we need to start planning for the 28 and 29 biennial budget. We know the choices ahead will be more difficult and the trade-offs more significant. Federal changes, state pressures, unfunded mandates, our own county's ongoing needs will require us to move beyond incremental adjustments. We will need to have fundamental conversations.

This board.

with our community about which services we provide, how we deliver them, where we can work differently, and what we can responsibly and sustainably afford. Those conversations will not be easy, but we will enter them from a position of strength. strengthened by years of fiscal responsibility and stewardship with a clear understanding that our responsibility and your responsibility extends beyond balancing just the next budget. Our task is to manage through this incredibly difficult time that is immediately in front of us while positioning Ramsey County in the best position we can for the long-term future. That means advocating for our fair share, protecting our taxpayers, continuing to transform our work, making thoughtful choices, and preserving our ability to serve and to support our community. So that's going to require us to maintain a responsible budget strategy that goes beyond a year. This is a multi-year strategy. Our strategy moving forward is more about balancing a single year budget. It is about sustaining Ramsey County's fiscal health while continuing to deliver services that our residents depend on. There are five areas that guide our work. We are going to protect what matters. We will prioritize our most critical needs, carefully manage hiring and vacancies with that in mind, direct our limited resources toward those highest priorities. Not every need can be addressed at once, so we will need to be clear and disciplined about what our highest priorities are. We will drive up operational excellence. We will continue, as we have been, to look at how we work, not simply how much we spend. That means streamlining operations, reducing duplication, leveraging technology where it improves services, finding better, more efficient ways to serve our residents. And we will maximize partnerships. Partnerships also means looking beyond Ramsey County as a single organization. be internally, but also with our partners. Through the joint property tax advisory committee, we need to work more strategically among the city of St. Paul and St. Paul Public Schools. Each of our organizations faces significant financial pressures, but we share the same taxpayers. We need to recognize the cumulative impact of our property tax decisions on residents and businesses and strengthen coordination, transparency, and shared problem solving. Taxpayers do not experience a city tax, a county tax, and a school tax separately. They experience one property tax bill. While we have the responsibility to collect that tax for everybody, we need to work with all our partners for their responsible portion of that tax bill. And so we need to see that whole picture by strengthening our regional and community partnerships and pursue services and work together so every dollar goes further. Partnership also includes our labor unions and our workforce partners. Our employees are essential in delivering the services that our community depends on. Over the next year, we will need to engage with our labor partners with transparency and also with clear eyes about the county's financial situation. We need to share an understanding of fiscal realities ahead and a willingness to work together and have conversations that are solution oriented to ensure that we support our workforce while protecting the long-term sustainability of county services. And as I've stated over and over again, we have to fight for sustainable funding. I feel like I can't say that quite enough. We will continue to make Ramsey County's voice heard with our state and federal partners, particularly as it comes to mandated services. And we must ensure that we create sustainable models that can support our work. And a new thing that I haven't spoken about quite yet, and I will address it now, is we need to grow the tax base. Fiscal sustainability is not about controlling only expenditures, though that is extremely critical. It is also about strengthening the economic foundation that supports our community. We will continue advancing redevelopment, encouraging business growth and investment, and supporting the conditions for long-term vitality for Ramsey County. These strategies will not eliminate the difficult choices we have ahead, but they give us a disciplined framework for making those choices, one that allows us to manage today's pressures while protecting our ability to serve into the future. As we look ahead, one of the most important and focused paths forward is growing our tax base. A stronger, more diverse tax base is critical to our long-term fiscal health and our ability to sustain the essential services that our community depends on. This past spring, we committed to Building Stronger Together, a strategy focusing on two parts, strengthening a stronger downtown St. Paul, a more vibrant downtown St. Paul, and returning county-owned property to productive use. Both represent opportunities to unlock economic value, encourage private investment, and put properties back to work for our community. Importantly, this strategy does not increase the general fund property tax levy. Instead, it's about strengthening the economic foundation that supports county services over the long term. As I stated, approximately 47% of our budget is supported by property taxes. That means the strength of our tax base matters, not only to the county's financial position, but to individual taxpayers. The stronger and more diverse our tax base becomes, the better positioned we are to sustain critical services while reducing pressure placed on individual homeowners and businesses. That is why, in the fiscal environment ahead, we cannot focus only on managing costs. We also have to grow our tax capacity to support services that our residents depend on. Economic growth is not separate from our budget strategy. It is an essential part of it. Our focus needs to be driving sustained momentum, knowing our next move, owning it, and clearing the path, and showing progress. We saw that in action a week ago over near Rice Creek Commons, where we had an open house, which we have another one tomorrow, filled with energy and excitement. The county is going first and leading the way, putting our resources behind public infrastructure needed to move the development forward through Rice Creek Boulevard. We are laying the groundwork, clearing the path, showing real progress can be made by moving forward with our investment in the future of Rice Creek Commons. This spring, Michael Control Company completed construction of a new headquarters at Rikes Creek Commons. The approximately 150,000 square foot facility, the development's first industrial business, occupies 10 acres and brings more than 200 jobs to the site. It is a tangible example of turning property into productive use. And we are confident it will be a catalyst for continued private investment and ongoing economic activity. In downtown St. Paul, there is growing momentum As well, the county is actively working with committed partners, including the St. Paul Downtown Alliance, to bring about robust investment into downtown. In fact, alongside other economic development partners and stakeholders, we were pleased to join in announcing a collective impact of a billion dollars in downtown investments as we look toward the future. Yes, we as Ramsey County are committed to managing costs. We are committed to fighting for our taxpayer voices and making difficult decisions, but we cannot cut our way to long-term fiscal strength. We have to grow. A stronger tax base is one of the most important tools we have to build a more sustainable financial future, and that is why we have tools like the Housing Redevelopment Authority, our Regional Rail Authority, and all that work intersects together with our Building Stronger Together strategy.

Almost done. Thank you for your patience.

As previously stated, the 2027 year is a year to measure performance. Over the next few weeks, our departments will come and present to you individually on their performance measures. Their presentations will directly connect the budget to the investments and the strategic priorities. We will take time to demonstrate how we are improving well-being. opportunity, prosperity, and accountability to our residents. Departments will share resident and community impacts. And then some will also share some cost-saving measures they are deploying as well. The performance year will help inform our next year's budget cycle decisions. So with that, I'm just going to take one last minute to tell you about our timeline. So right now I'm presenting the budget to you. Starting Thursday, you will start hearing from these budget presentations. At the end of our last budget presentation, which will be on September 10th, we will host our first public hearing in this room. We will provide parking vouchers. We encourage people to sign up if they would like to testify at that event. On September 21st, there is a joint meeting of the Joint Property Tax and Advisory Committee where we will review the city, county, and school district levies. In mid-November, residents will start to get estimated tax and values. Oh, I apologize. I skipped over a key date here. On September 22nd, at your board meeting, you will set the max levy, which then will drive those tax statements that will come in November. to residents that will be based upon those max levies set by all the taxing jurisdictions. And then on December 3rd, we will host our truth in taxation meeting at 630 here in this room again. And then on December 15th, the county board will approve the 2027 budget as well as the property tax and other levies. I thank you for your patience in hearing such a long presentation. I felt it was really important to tell the the whole and complete story, even in a supplemental year, as to all the things that we have before us, both in 2027 as we look ahead. And I am open to answering any questions you might have.

Commissioner Lauren?

All right. I want to thank you, County Manager Becker, for your introduction of our supplemental budget. Well, it really does help ground us in the approved 26-27 biennial budget and understand why key drivers for the proposed 27 supplemental budget is needed. So I really, it's a lot to take in, it's a lot to do, but I really do appreciate you taking the time to present. And as you stated, we are in our second year of the 26-27 biannual budget cycle, which really does involve supplementing the approved budget for 2027 and measuring the county performance in key areas that will help advance strategic priorities and meet community needs. And by no means is this a simple, easy process. We're going to really have to make some really tough decisions as we move forward. But I look forward to the opportunity to really look at this through a breakdown of each priority areas within Ramsey County. So the 26-27 volume budget responds to the heightened fiscal pressures in a rapidly evolving local, state, and national landscape, all of which is going to impact our decision-making and how we move forward. And so the 2027 supplemental budget process demonstrates the county's continued commitment to navigating complex conditions with fiscal responsibility and accountability to our community. And with seven county commissioners here on the board, there is a lot to take in and decisions that need to be made. But I do look forward to us all working together to look at how to best do this in the best way possible, which, again, is not going to be easy to do. Because any time we're looking at reductions, looking at cuts, looking at how we can expand and continue delivering services in a way that we do makes it really complex with no really easy, simple decisions around it. really appreciate it. And of course, we really look for the public to participate in this budget process. And so I just look forward. I know there's probably more questions that's going to come from the board members as we move forward. And just look forward to each county department presenting their performance measures as we move forward. which will show how the budget investments are helping the county advance its strategic priorities. But again, thank you for opening this up and presenting your key budget processes and really the thoughtfulness that went into this.

Commissioner McGuire, then Sink.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, County Manager Becker, for this great presentation. introduction and sort of context making presentation. We need the context and we need historical information and you've given it to us about what we're really facing this year and just want to Thank you for that. And just to let you know that we're all here to do this work. And Commissioner Moran is chair of the Finance Committee, and I'm chair of the legislative team. And we are really going to be relying on our partners at the state and federal level to really help with this work. And so I know we're starting early on. meeting with them, giving them these same presentations, talking to all of our partners on what we're facing here and how we are going to need their help as well to get through this. I know that Commissioner Murtry and I were at the AMC strategic planning session last week and they've got a whole grid now of of county mandated services. What's required of counties and what are counties going to be doing? And everybody in the state and in the country, quite frankly, are facing these pressures. And it's going to be a helpful document that we can template that we can fit into as well to say, and I know we've already started this work. And I think we were instrumental in helping AMC come up with this, but just to find out what are we required to do? What do we feel we need to do? And what are we not able to do? And that's going to be really tough decisions because we are a board that really wants to do the best thing we can for our residents. And we're going to be... having these tough decisions, but I know we have we'll have a lot of partners that will be relying on to help us with that and We just you know, thank you and thank all the many All the many departments and staff that have helped with with this work so far and are going to continue to do this work So, thank you

Yes, I just wanted to bring us back to slide 15, or at least that's what it's on my packet, the Ramsey County property tax levy. There you go. Great. So given the presentation and the conversations that we have had over the last year and a half, following the full budget presentation that we went through through our biannual setting, and then all of the things that have happened in the last calendar year following HR1, when I look at this, I'm seeing that the In order for us not to grow or expand, but to maintain and to do what is required of us from our state and federal partners in the way that we are prescribed to do that, that we see that that would be a projected 9.6%. But because of knowing that we do not want to place that burden on property tax owners, that this budget that you're presenting holds the line at the maximum set last year at 8.25. So that means there's about 1.35, if I'm doing the math in my head quick, of additional cuts or cost savings or revenue generation that our current processes and departments have to find in the next little bit. And I saw the list of potential ways of looking at and reviewing that. I think that as much as we can in this time of affordability pressures, of financial pressures on our community, and then a sense of general concern over mistrust and representation in government, that the more that we can show our work the better I think folks will understand what it is that we're doing here to be good stewards. And so I would just say I would love to hear a little bit more about what you have directed your department heads to be looking at to get from 9.6 to 8.25, because that's quite a chunk for you to fiscally manage and still uphold our responsibilities.

Yeah, thank you. Mr. Chair, Commissioner Jevenson. So as part of managing every year's budget, you know, what we really do benefit from is doing good forecasting and having like a robust partnership between both central finance and also our departments and deputy county managers. So what we do throughout the year is really do a series of really critical meetings where we're constantly seeing where things are at, right? So that through that process, as we manage, and we're doing that in real time in 2026, we just recently had our those forecast meetings. And it is through those processes that we can see where do we actually need to make some adjustments. And that's just part of the administrative work of being good stewards as county staff and as working closely with our CFO and our deputy county managers. So I want you to know that on a kind of a regular daily monthly basis, we are constantly managing our budget. and trying to look for things where we can save money or we need to fill gaps. Because, you know, rules and regs or even funding things change mid-year all the time. What we're talking about here are actually some strategies that I continue will need to work with the deputy county managers and with our CFO to figure out where we can have some cost savings without over-committing to our taxpayers today in this recommendation, if that makes sense. So to be more specific, we talked a bit about doing some contract reviews with our deputy county managers to make sure we're not buying. Is that a county? essential thing that we're doing? Is it a nice to do in the sense of it was something we aligned with a lot of the work that we were doing, but it is not health well-being immediate this year. Maybe it can be postponed or maybe we can find a different funding source than Levy. I also feel like there's oftentimes we can't have Levy be the first and only funding source that we use. And so there is going to be some looking at where we can complement. And I'll give the example of As we operationalize, and you all made this decision as part of the addenda last year process, as we decided to operationalize appropriate response in the 2027 budget, we decided to take a bit of that pressure off the levy and use some opioid money to offset that funding. So it's a little bit of that. type of blended thinking about how to maximize the use of levy because so much of our grant dollars are really rigid and obviously more prescriptive certainly through some sort of vacancy review and being cautious about our hiring in 2027 but you are the first to know based on the presentations that you have had very high sight lines into creating additional ft's whether it was for min choices whether it was for our adult detention center, whether it was just for our FAS related to HR1, sometimes we have to have more employees in order to do the work. So we really need to look at that prioritization of the mandated versus the non-mandated and think thoughtfully about the hiring. And so that would be another area as well. And as I also did address with you just very quickly, we will need some more personnel cost control tools. And I'll be bringing some of those forward as we end the year just to ensure that we have some tools in our toolbox as we go forward in 27 and also well beyond. I mean, this is not just a one-year conversation. And then I mentioned the increased fees. We are just starting to look at what the implementation of that can be as we look into the biennial. I think that is going to be a more robust strategy in the biennial budget. But certainly in 2027, we've directed the Parks Department to start charging the non-resident fees for our golf just as an ability to start that process and start that work. And there'll be more of that. Does that help? We'll continue to give the board updates on some of those as you need.

Yes. And I would also say, just as a follow up to that, I think that in community, we often hear folks say, well, in my house, if I need to, I can tighten the belt. And what I think I really want to say that I appreciate deeply the depth of level setting and foundational understanding of what drives our budget. To think of what are fixed costs that are dictated by outside services and then where do we have flexibility and to take accountability for the things that we do have. the opportunity to be more efficient and more effective. I think as we go into our 28-29 budget, to reiterate my colleague, Commissioner McGuire, the idea of we need to really be clear as much as we can, because some things are complicated. There's braided funding in the way we approach certain things. But what are things that the county must do? What are things that we should do? What are things that we choose to do when we're able? And what are the things that we seriously have to talk to community about cutting? or transferring to another community partner responsibly, because that's a better home for that work. And so just setting up the conversation to say to community, the next few years are going to be really tough. And it's going to require complex and nuanced conversations. It will have to square those circles or round the edges of things, because a lot of times what we hear from communities, we want all of these things better, faster, and more efficiently, but don't make the fiscal investments that are going to raise my property taxes. And those two things are not congruent. So we're going to have to have some very nuanced conversations, and this is the time that we're entering in. So thank you for this foundation, and we'll continue to ask those questions as we go through the presentation.

I have Commissioner Miller, then McMurtry.

Thank you, County Manager Becker. A lot of what I was going to say has already been said, so I really just don't want to repeat that. But I appreciate the transparency that this presentation brought and really in showing us where we landed after we passed the biannual budget. But one thing I really want us to keep in mind as we're going through individual budgets and department and presentations is that the cumulative impact that some of the decisions we make would have on the whole organization and not just one area. And then also, to be listening as they present to both the opportunities and the workshops for smaller efficiencies. I really liked how you said that we're looking at the parks and charging outside fees and are there other areas we can, you know, have opportunity to increase revenues as well. But that's pretty much what I wanted to say. I just really appreciate that. And just to really, we have to think big picture as well as it may not affect one area as much, but when we put it all together, it has a bigger impact.

Yeah, I appreciate that, Commissioner. I think, you know, oftentimes when there's tough budgets, it can be a natural, I don't know, a way of doing it is to sometimes just say across the board, do something, right? And I think that, you know, our work is much more strategic and nuanced than that. And taking the time to talk to our, working closely with our department leaders and our deputy client managers, to really think about where a scalpel approach is more appropriate. Because you've seen some of the departments come in and just say, we have some really big things we have to do that the community expects, that the law expects. And you just can't look at it quite so blanket. You know what I mean? So you have to go do that hard, deeper work. And so we're committed to doing that. And that's where, you know, we could just say we're going to hold all positions, but I actually don't think that that is the best thing for our community. We need to be really thoughtful about which positions we hold. And as you guys have made investments recently, we actually had to add some positions because of some really important things that we had to do both on the cost mitigation side of overtime, but also ensure our residents weren't waiting in longer waiting lists around our assessments. So these things all require a more deeper conversation and some data, and we're committed to doing that. So I appreciate you recognizing that the work is a little more delicate. So thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, County Manager, for the presentation, the start of this budget process. I think it was really sobering to get the full context of what we're dealing with now and what we're going to continue to see in the future. And I appreciate the last statement of, you know, you could have easily said, all right, we're just going to blanket cut 5% across every department. But there's a lot more nuance to the work that we're doing here, and this is what I think more effective governing looks like, of really surveying all of the different options that we have to really think of doing so responsibly and also ensuring that we're meeting the needs for the folks in our communities. I also really appreciate the... The message that we are not just going to continue to cut and cut and cut and think that's going to solve the situations that we're currently in, that we also have to be building for the future and those investments that we want to make, for instance, with building Stronger Together, are just as important in this budget. And so I appreciate highlighting that piece because I think that's going to be also important as we look to the future of if we want to really start thinking about bringing down our property taxes, the burden on so many of our residents, we are going to have to invest in growing our tax base and really spurring more economic growth across our communities. And so I'm happy to see that that's a part of this conversation as well. I have one question that stemmed from last year's budget where we passed a couple of positions to help with the random moments time study as a form of revenue generation for the county. Have we seen the impacts of that? those new positions and the work towards that random moments being reflected in this budget of generating a bit more revenue than we have in the past?

Yeah, thank you. You know, I would say that random moments is still a pressure point for us. And recently in our forecast, you know, there were some administrative pressures on trying to capture that revenue that we are continuing to work through. So I would say the investment in the administrative service directors have really helped us to sort of think about, because as you can see, we split up the departments that touch that random moment money into some different areas, and that's taken some significant recalibrating as well. So to answer your question, it is a work in progress. I think we will reap benefits as we continue to understand. We're actually doing an accounting alignment, too. So underneath that organizational alignment, while we've shifted the direct reports and things on an org chart, we still are unweaving the accounting side of some of that. And so that will be harder to measure in such a short time, but I would be committed to bringing back that to you. But what this does bring to mind that I did want to say is, And I'm so proud of the team. I think this is actually one of the most significant things we did in 2026. Despite Metro's surge during that first part of the year, and I know it was a big investment to invest in those administrative service directors for this board. And we were able to power through a significant amount of budget pressures. that we are now continuing to move through different phasing. And we're going to be entering into the 28-29 budget in a way we've never been able to before. Because we're not looking for the quick hits. We've been delving in over the past few months. So what we did, so folks know publicly, is we went back over, I would say, four budget cycles. So for Ramsey County, that would be about eight budgets. And inside those budget documents, There is a section for department directors to call out budget pressures, like kind of looking 10 year ahead. It was kind of the heading. And I had asked all of them to go back, because really, 10 years ago, eight years ago, that is today now. And so we don't need new things that we already actually knew were coming and not start addressing them, right? So we wanted to get ahead of some of that. I did provide you an update, and I can re-find it if you missed it or maybe want to see it again. We did close out a few of those budget pressures that were kind of emergent back eight, six years ago. And then there are others that continue to be budget pressures. And now the DCMs, in partnership with their administrative directors, in partnership with central finance, are tasked with, are you ready to go to the next mile marker? What are we going to do differently in the 28-29 budget because you know what you know. So while we are managing kind of a lot of things that we have no control over, we actually have a lot of work that we need to stay, you know, very focused on, on things that we actually know quite a bit about, but sometimes it doesn't come with the urgency to deal with them. And I think this moment calls us to say, In 28 and 29, we can't have surprise budget pressures. We already have those coming from the state and federal government. If we have them internally, you better get them in front of the right people, and we better be trying to solve for them now. And that's been the message. And so I think random moments is one of those areas. And investing in positions is one part of a larger strategy that we need to do. So the other thing I wanted to add, since I have a moment here and the mic, Commissioner Jefferson, I agree with you. on all the things that you said about reducing costs of the different ways. The one thing I do want to highlight again and again is the layering of multiple levels of government and the need to work together in partnership. And that's where you guys play an important role too, both on your GPTAC roles for some of you city commissioners. For those of you who are suburban commissioners, we should be talking to the school districts and cities in a very similar manner. I think related to Commissioner Morant, Your conversations around housing instability and homelessness, those have to be regional conversations. We are at a point where, yes, at AMC, you are talking statewide. Everyone has significant pressures. Now we have to forge the right alliances, alignments, of when is it St. Paul and Ramsey County should do something differently. With all of those things, there are trade-offs. I just got done saying that to someone else about partnerships. Sometimes in a partnership, you have to give up something. But right now, we are not at a moment where we can hold every... I mean, all the staff who've been at our leadership level know my favorite line lately is just, you have to hold the work loose. You have to hold it loose. We cannot be so fixated at this moment that this work belongs to me, this dollar belongs to me, this FTE belongs to me. We have to center on the resident and the situation. The homeless situation is a regional situation. It doesn't belong to Ramsey County. There's not parts of it that belong. We have to all work together and figure out how we can work together and I think at the GPTAC table, we were starting to see the number of buildings the three entities own, the services that we all do. Is there overlapping services? And the other thing that I'm really proud of that I didn't get to highlight, even though in my very long presentation, I do want to give a shout out to... this board, and to some of the leaders that were here when we did the American Rescue Plan Act. We are one of the few government entities that does not have this cliff. We use that money in a really strategic way. Some of you who are board members, I tried to put it but it was a slide that got taken out. But there was this really nice tiering. Some of you might remember when we did those investments, there were five tiers. The most immediate tiers were kind of to support the well-being of our community at this most critical time. It was things about making sure people got food and got workforce and all the things, right? And then it slowly built up to sustaining our organization. We took some big swings. The big swings were the things at the top. That was our affordable housing work. As you recall, last week, we crossed that barrier of $100 million affordable housing. Now, that wasn't all ARPA money, but ARPA was the thing that sort of built our muscle and extended that money in terms of our thinking to be a big player in that ecosystem, and that was transformative. And ARI was another one, transformative. You will hear from emergency communications when they come And talk about ARI. But we are doubling down on operationalizing it. And that was the whole goal of our philosophy on the American Rescue Plan dollars. Serve our community in a moment of crisis. Find some ability to take some of the money to do some transformative work. And not have so many tails when it's all over. And that money is sunsetting. here, probably as we speak. I believe it's actually August. But we don't have dozens of positions that I'm coming to with a problem. We were really thoughtful in making sure how those resources were expended. And that is a big appreciation for the leaders that preceded me. I was grateful to be a part of working on the workforce money, but a lot of folks are still here. But certainly, the board for your decision of holding restraint, honestly. I mean, sometimes when you get a big pot of money like that, it can feel like we should create a whole bunch of new programs that have major tails. We were really, really thoughtful. And as a result, while we have some very serious challenges in 27, we didn't add to them. with that situation. And we should be very, very pleased with that. And we got some transformative work out of it. And we served our community during the pandemic. So I think that's something I wanted to call out. It got taken out, and I basically just put it back in. So it's fine. Yeah, so I can take any other questions. I know we'll have a lot more conversations. Yeah.

Thank You mr. Chair County manager Becker I just want to say thank you so much for a very thorough presentation here about what we can expect in this process and just level-setting And I also want to thank the staff and the leadership behind you that worked really hard to do this and One of the things I'm looking at is just about where the dollar comes from, and knowing that we made investments into positions for grants as well, is for the team to think more about charges for services. I know you mentioned one of them as starting with golf, but made those charges for services instead of 18% of the revenue, can it make up 20% of the revenue instead? And also track and get a report back about grants as well, too. Because those were investments that the county made within my time here. Because I would say, Commissioner McMurtry said the word, it's sobering. It's sobering, and I just really appreciate the fiscal restraint as well as just the team looking closer at the budget, because I will tell to our property taxpayers or residents, no one here ran on increasing property taxes ever. And the big shift is really coming down, and we're just looking at, this is just a preview or a glimpse at the tip of the iceberg of what it's going to really cost. And without significant changes from the state and federal government, we... we will have to seriously consider cuts in services and just only do mandatory services. So I just want to say that this budget is sobering. And we can control what we can control so much, too. But I just want to let our taxpayers and our residents know that these are the challenges before us.

Yeah, thank you, Commissioner. I mean, I think the theme is, you know, the only thing we know for certain is that there's a lot of uncertainty ahead. And I do think, as I mentioned last week, and I'll just put a pin in it, is that some counties may choose to levy more now in anticipation of some of these pressures that I showed you on those last slides. That's not the approach that I'm recommending to you. We should not build additional property tax capacity around costs that actually appropriately belong to our state and federal partners when we still have an opportunity to continue to advocate. And that's where that strong advocacy set of slides I felt like was to protect the taxpayers was so important. That's only come because of a really strong financial management and stewardship of the board today and the boards that preceded you, Ramsey County is in a position to be able to be really disciplined and thoughtful about how we navigate these changes without overreaction. So I just really want to say what I'm recommending to you is not an overreaction. It is what we need in order to do our work. I will say it's unprecedented in the sense that historically we have not gone back on the second year of the biennium. And certainly to bring it up, during the pandemic, the board decided to bring it down one time, down to zero. This is the first time we'll have brought that second year up. And I certainly did not feel that it was the moment to bring it up to a point that doesn't commit this organization to managing a significant part of that. as we go into 28 and 29 and have to work that muscle even more. So thank you.

Commissioner Singh?

Yeah, I have a follow-up question, which you just opened it up for there, as if you knew that's where I was going. When we looked at the regional average annual percentage levy change across some of our metro partners, I see that we were second in keeping our levy low historically to Dakota County. And I just want to ask about that because I understand that what they're looking at this year are increases close to 20%.

Absolutely, Commissioner. From what I have seen in the news, they're offering their residents conversations about three scenarios. One is as high as 20%. Each of the scenarios have staffing reductions as well as service changes as well. So they're going to have to figure out how they do that. They have had, I think, historically very low property tax levy increases. And while at a time where one of the things that can sometimes get you a little bit in a challenging situation. It's kind of like what I talked about with the ARPA money. You can't like hire and build programs and not have some of those funds in your base budget as costs continue to grow, right? And so that is the challenge of all counties is to have to find that ability to figure out how to, you know, in some ways that's one of the reasons it was, I was very transparent with you when you made your decisions recently about around the ADC and around FAS as well. We asked for one-time contingency money to be able to have them start those hires, but you needed to have clear understanding that that was going to impact the levy because we would not want to carry those positions into permanency with any sort of one-time start money and then not have the ongoing tax levy increases to balance it because then we would be in the situation where I'd be saying, Oh, and also I have to now find money for 17 FTEs for FAS within our managing amount as well. Does that make sense? So yeah, thank you.

Yeah, and so I say that not as a sense of also we work with our colleagues in counties across the metro. Of course, yes, very hard. And so it's healing the pain of our colleagues in Dakota County, but also just putting into context the discipline with which this budget you presented us has already been in. My last is just a technical question. We have a number of budget presentations that are on the calendar. Is there a way for somebody in community to know which topics are being discussed in which of these budget presentations?

Yeah, thank you. I forgot my closing slide. So at this website, there's all the information about the public hearings, how people can make public comment. You can call the clerk's office. You can submit public comment via email. You can actually sign up to be part of a public hearing. And of course, constituents can always email your offices directly, obviously, as well. So all that information is on our budget page.

Thank you. McGuire?

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. We say it so often, and I just want to say it again. And it's something that you've talked about in the big shift when you talked about the federal government shifting to us. And just to say that this is nothing that we did or didn't do to cause this huge budget crunch and situation that we find ourselves in. We have been amazingly strong and disciplined stewards of our taxpayer money. You have been amazing at, County Manager, at finding all the ways throughout these last years that you've been County Manager at finding ways that we can reduce our reliance on property taxes and really give our residents what they need without having to go to the property tax. And you've looked for ways to combined services to look at ways that we can be more efficient. But this coming down from the federal government, this H.R. 1, was unnecessary, quite frankly, in my opinion. This was something the federal government chose to do and has put all of us in a horrible place and has required us to do make decisions that we really don't want to make, and every county is feeling it. We're feeling it specifically in ways that other counties aren't feeling it, and we're dealing with it. But this is a result of a federal government doing things that they actually don't need to do, but they're just as in Metro Surge. That was unnecessary. and they're spending money that they don't need to spend, and they're charging, and they're sending it down to local governments. And I'm just saying what is the reality that we're all facing with, and that just to say that... that elections matter and who we have running our federal government right now is not helping any of us at all. They're just making it harder for us and they're making it more burdensome. And so, you know, we got to keep working with our federal partners and our state partners to get through this. And it's just been obviously very frustrating that they're making decisions that are impacting us in such negative ways. But I just feel like I need to say that at every moment that I can.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Commissioner McGuire, for naming that. Elections have consequences, and for the amount of calls and complaints that we get about property taxes, I hope residents are equally calling our federal electeds at the federal level about the cost shifts, because care does not end simply because the federal government cuts it or pushes it. It just simply comes to local government that gets borne by property taxpayers. So I just want to name that and also say residents should definitely be talking to all of their elected officials at all levels. Thank you.

I just want to say a couple of comments here. First of all, I can't think of a week that Ling and I have not talked about the budget and ramifications. She's really giving you a synopsis or distilled version of all the ideas that she was looking at and the possibilities. So I just want to commend Ling. you should feel comfortable and confident that she has mastered the budget and the possibilities and the different avenues. The other point is that while, you know, you know, we're in, despite all the negative, we're in good financial shape. And in comparison to our peers in the metro area, the issue is not who has the lowest tax levy, but what makes sense in looking at it long term. We did what we needed to do, and we are able to manage. Eight percent is high, and maybe we might have to go a little higher next year. But I got to tell you, the rest of the metro area is going to be far higher than us. We got to stay the course and be disciplined moving forward. The ramifications are not just federal. They're also state. The state is not going to save us, folks. We're going to have to manage this while we will go and advocate at the legislature. The state has economic issues also. And the reality is we're going to have to continue doing a good job. So I just want to commend Ling for the great work she's done in terms of looking at the big picture and making sure that the county continues on the path it's been for a while now. So thank you so much, Ling. You did a fantastic job. The county connections, I don't know if you have anything else to say.

Well, even when we have a budget, the work doesn't end. So I wanted to highlight, last Saturday, we have a Mother's First program in social services. And they held a community baby shower in partnership with St. Paul College Bound and Diva Moms. They brought together 460 community members and 26 volunteers. organizations for a dedicated day about growing families offering blankets formula diapers to our community so I want to give a shout out to Tracy Jones the mother's first supervisor and her team and also thank all the partners and people who provided donations as I mentioned in the budget address we are really excited about work be happening over at Rice Creek Commons around Rice Creek Boulevard there was in-person public open house last week, and there will be another one actually tomorrow that's a virtual option for those midday who want to learn more. So you can go to our website to look for that. But again, one of those examples of the county, you know, taking a lead role in controlling what we can control and moving projects forward. And then lastly, some people's favorite thing that we do is our environmental center. And lots of great things happening over there. There is a Fix-It Clinic this Saturday. I know that is a wonderful resource for people to repurpose things that they have thought maybe otherwise to discard. We have local people who are willing to tinker with your things. And it's just great community building. So I just wanted to shout out the work that they're doing there. So thank you, Commissioner.

Outside board, should we begin with you? OK.

Just a couple of things here. I met last week with Jody Emmons from Interface Action. She's the newly appointed CEO of Interface Action of Greater St. Paul to discuss the 1010 Bandana Boulevard West location, which is the former Best Western Plus Como Park Hotel, which is now the permanent home of Interface Action and Project Home. And they provide 24 hours of emergency shelter and support for Ramsey County families experiencing homelessness. The site also connects families with meal, clothing, case management, tutoring, job coaching, financial education, and assistance securing permanent housing. This adaptive reuse represent the kind of coordinated practical response needed to strengthen housing stability for families. And so I also have on my agenda, which hopefully I can report back in within the next weeks or so, because I'm going to do a site visit over there. And then also last week, I joined a homeless roundtable at Union Gospel Mission Twin Cities, which is convened by Ecolab president and CEO Christoph Beck. This is a gathering that's been happening over the last two years. Most of the meetings have been at Ecolabs itself. So it's good to see them come out into the community and meet and gather at one of the sites where we're providing services for homeless individuals and families. The gathering brought together leaders from the public, private, nonprofit, and faith communities to discuss SHARE's solution to homelessness. And I really was able to appreciate the focus on coordination, accountability, and the understanding that no single organization or sector can solve this challenge alone, that it really is about bringing a collective of many together to work on this. But I also especially want to say a thank you to Ecolab, who has invested $2 million into ending homelessness. So we just got to figure out what those dollars can best be used with and how. But I shared with the president, Christopher, the CEO, Mr. Beck, that I remember the very first meeting, convening a community-based organization, people from the public, private, nonprofit, and faith community come together. And the conversation at that time that he opened up with was the crisis that was happening in downtown with the homeless population who were very visible in downtown St. Paul, who were walking. through the skyways and the problem that that was having with the businesses in downtown. And his statement was more or less, what are y'all going to do about this? And so I just congratulate him for moving away from what are y'all going to do about this to being a partner saying, what can we do about this? and then putting money towards that solution. Because the one thing that we do know, there are many problems that we have in this area around homelessness and support service and wraparound service, dealing with the mental illness, dealing with the drug addiction. There's much to try to solve. But the one thing that we know, even with the many partners at the table, is that we do not have enough dollars to do everything that needs to do. And so having them put an initial investment of $2 million on the table to help solve the problems or work with solutions is... which I think I just need to recognize and validate that. Kudos to them for seeing that that is also part of the solution. And really, I look forward to a place where we can look at our top 500 businesses saying, how can other businesses invest dollars towards this solution? Because government cannot do this alone. And we know many of our nonprofits and others who's doing the services need that type of support. So kudos to Eagle Lab and the president and CEO, Christopher Beck, for his work in that area. And that's it for me.

All right, I will be quick to have respect for time. So last week, I attended a North St. Paul student-built house. So this is a partnership between the city of North St. Paul and St. Paul College. The program really gives students hands-on experience in construction trades while also creating new housing and investing back into the community. Beautiful house. It's a side-by-side. If you want to move to North St. Paul and live in my district, go check it out. It's pretty great. And then on Friday, I attended the Mawanduwiwug. It's the employee resource group gathering that they hosted at Keller Regional Park. It was a really great opportunity to spend time, share a meal, play some games that I lost right away. And then learn from Ben Weaver, who provided a hide tanning demonstration. I just want to also give shout out to our employee resource groups. They are really a great way for staff to connect across departments in different areas of the organization, build relationships, learn from one another, and really just create space where they can support each other. So I appreciate being able to be invited and attend that outside of our normal schedule. settings. And then yesterday I attended the AMC tribal leadership meeting with tribal leaders in Fond du Lac, hosted it at Black Bear yesterday. It was a great turnout from county commissioners even down south, from county commissioners up north. It was a full agenda. We talked about the tribal state relations training and how we can bring that more into more commissioners at either our conferences, how we can open it up more. Again, I attended the one and a few other commissioners that was hosted in June. So really, how can we expand that? Because it's really beneficial. SHAC was there to present because there's a new ruling that includes tribal nations a part of SHAC. They were there, and we had four of the tribal leaders agree to join on to SHAC, which was really great. And then we also talked about the new OMB changes as well and how they're affecting counties and then how they are also affecting tribal nations. Part that was brought up that I thought was interesting is with that ruling, there was no consultation with the tribes across the United States. And that's part of a rule, a law, a precedence that the federal government and state agencies have is tribal consultation. So we'll be following that along. But otherwise, I thought it was a really great meeting and a great time to get out and travel. So with that, meet you.

I just want to highlight two things. Last week I had a chance to visit McDonough Homes since I was unable to attend their ribbon cutting ceremony for the seven units townhome building that was just built. I got a chance to do a little private tour with the St. Paul Public Housing Agency. This project in particular is pretty awesome. The county was able to contribute just over $2 million to the construction of this facility. And it's providing units at 30% to 50% AMI, so really continuing with the strategy and the the focus on deeply affordable housing. So just thank you again to the St. Paul Public Housing Agency for inviting me to take part of this tour and to see the amazing units and the upgrades that they've made. It was really great. And the last thing I'll highlight is myself and Commissioner Zhong had a chance to meet yesterday with an organization, We Choose Us, which I believe is an affiliate. of Isaiah to speak with folks who are really interested in elections and election safety. So we had a chance to answer a series of questions from them on what the county has been doing to ensure that we have safe and secure elections, not only coming off of August 11th, but looking ahead to the general election. Really appreciate the time. I had a chance to really share with them not only what we're doing, but even some of the more innovative steps we're taking, such as the election office hours, which there are two more, I believe, that are planned for September 3rd and September 10th. So I want to continue to encourage folks to register, to get your questions answered from our elections experts, and we'll continue to do our part to ensure our elections are secure heading to November.

OK, thank you. I'm going to ask everybody on this side of the table, one minute. I'm going to cut you off. We're really behind on the time crunch.

No worries. All righty. Starting with, I was able to attend the Rice Creek Commons open house about the construction of the spine road and was really happy to hear the excitement in the room and also the appreciation of some of our Arden Hills residents who were like, well, wait a second. So the county is paying for this? And you're all just going in on this? And we're like, yeah, we're all in on this. And so it was nice to be able to convey to that sense of building stronger together that these aren't just words. We're going to see that site being prepped. We're going to start seeing the construction being done and get that development going. Again, if you weren't able to attend, all of that is on the website, as are any of our other our engagement processes as before. I also just want to say one last thing, which is that Matt Hill has joined the D1 office to help me out this fall. Some of you may know Matt Hill. I think he is stamping his passport for every possible commissioner, starting with Tony Carter, to Commissioner McGuire, to Gares McMurtry, and now to the District 1 office. So welcome back, Matt.

He is stamping his passport. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a couple of upcoming things. First of all, the State Fair starts on Thursday. We're so excited. And Ramsey Washington Recycling and Energy Board is having their meeting, and then we have the Haller Appreciation Picnic is after that. So that's this Thursday. And also there's a groundbreaking for Twin Lake Technology Center in Roseville, which is a great project that we gave $500,000 through the Environmental Response Fund And that is tomorrow from 9 to 10.30. So good job on everybody who had something to do with that. And I'll save everything else until next week.

Perfect. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I will just say for folks to follow me on Facebook. That's where I'm most active. And LinkedIn. My Chong Chong Ramsey County Commissioner District 6. I post there regularly on my meetings and updates. And then also a weekly newsletter that has been published very religiously every Friday. Thanks.

Thank you. Following the county board meeting, we have a workshop chaired by Commissioner Moran. We'll need five-minute break because of the technical switches here. We are adjourned.

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