Reasonable Taxation

In 2024, property owners in Anoka faced a 20% hike in our tax levy.  The tentative budget for 2025 includes a likely tax increase of over 10%.  This 30% increase in the levy over just two years, could have been softened if the city had not used a significant amount of its’ reserved funds to purchase property.  These reserve funds could have been used to offset some of the increases in expenses.  In the past 10 years, the excessive property purchases by the City Council have also significantly increased the city’s bonding debt and future debt service costs. 

I strongly support replenishing the City of Anoka’s reserved funds by finally developing the empty lots (already purchased by the city).  As developers build new housing, this will also restore city owned properties to the tax rolls and increase tax revenue without raising taxes to offset all of the tax paying properties removed from the tax rolls.

I believe that if the City Council is more fiscally responsible and ends its’ seeming “addiction” to buying property, tax payers will benefit and our annual levy increases can return to a much more reasonable level.