2026 Budget & Tax Levy

Here's an idea for raising revenue: Start ticketing people who are speeding on Valley View. The area around Southdale is especially out of control--and very dangerous. You could make money on that stretch of "highway" (Little 494 as we call it) very easily.

Here's another thing, as long as I have a chance to complain about stuff. If you make the Southdale area more walkable, it would reduce the money the city has to spend on street repairs by reducing traffic. Foot traffic has. a much lower impact on the infrastructure while making it more pleasant for everyone who has to get from point A to point B. The city gets huge credit for the Promenade. That was a smart project. But there are many crosswalks in the area that are not ADA compliant and not safe for pedestrians. Have you ever tried walking across York Avenue from the Southdale parking lot to the shopping center around Cub? You can't really do it. There's no landing or sidewalk on the east side of the street. I can give more examples, but who's really reading this anyway? I love the city but it could be more imaginative when it comes to saving money.

That tunnel idea is intriguing, but is it safe or cost effective? How about a cool bridge instead? Or put some skyways in. It seems the Southdale area is heading towards density, so skyways or attractive, covered bridges might cost less. Build them high enough so that unscrupulous trucking companies don't hit them.

Paul Selcke, resident since 1994.

My family has lived in Edina since 1985. We think the tunnel project for France Ave is a good idea and may bring much needed pedestrian traffic to the area and may rejuvenate the Southdale area which is a must to preserve. The recent proposal to not use direct taxpayer money is preferred. Thank you. Rob R.

The Edina City Council acknowledges "economic uncertainty," but puts forth a budget that far outstrips inflation. The city staff emphasizes money spent on public safety then proposes those are the positions that should be cut. Whose interests are being represented at Edina City Hall, other than developers? The budget increases should be at pace with inflation, period. No more bonding, no more TIF, no more sleight of hand.

My name is Kirk Aadalen and I live in the Sunnyslope Neighborhood.

This levy is the last straw for a lot of people in Edina including myself. The City of Edina and it's elected officials have three core missions and responsibilities. Public safety (Fire and Police), Infrastructure (roads and bridges) and parks.

Right now there is a need for EMS and Fire fighters in Edina. This is a direct result of the City inappropropriately using TIF funds to stimulate unnatural growth through massive apartment buildings but that is now water under the bridge so to speak.
That being said, double digit property tax levies year after year is not sustainable and needs to be addressed.

The City Council needs to take care of it's core responsibilities first. If there is no money after that then they need to cut spending somewhere else in the budget.

The time is long past due for fiscal responsibility to the tax payers of Edina by the elected City Council members.

Kevin Newman Dewey Hill

I attended the 12/2/25 city council meeting and I’d like to express my deep concern regarding the proposed property tax increase of 8.96% for 2026.

Really? I should be pleased that the 2026 tax hike proposal was cut from 11% to 9%?
A near double-digit tax increase each of the past two years and now another 9% increase, which is 3 times the inflation rate, suggests the city overspends.

According to Hennepin County tax statements, my home's value rose 11.6% over the past three years, followed by city tax rate increases of 9.1% in 2024 and 8.4% in 2025. Justifying another 9% increase in 2026, on this growing base, seems unreasonable.

I recognize that higher taxes are intended to improve public safety and emergency services in Morningside. If response time can't be reduced logistically, I hope the new fire station #3 isn't an extravagant Taj Mahal project like fire station #2.

High tax increases create a ripple effect. While the City Council advocates for affordable housing, they consistently raise taxes significantly, which undermines affordability for current homeowners, potential home buyers and reduces profitability for landlords—leading to resistance to these efforts.

The approved funding to assess the viability of constructing a tunnel beneath France is another example of wasteful spending and the concept itself—much like the earlier proposal to build a lid on Hwy 100 at 50th—should be abandoned.

It appears that the city council readily approves costly projects. To control spending and align rate increases with the 3% national inflation, it may be necessary to cut programs and if necessary, reduce staff.

The person who wrote "anyone who lives in Edina and owns property can easily afford the tax increase" is wrong. There are definitely people who are lower middle class, middle class in Edina for whom this increase is a hardship. I don't mind paying for truly needed items. Remodeling City Hall and the Police part of the building does not seem necessary. The outer and inner parts of the building look fine to me. I live in a building built in 1966 and basically original. Also I have heard about plans to build a tunnel under France Ave.. That sounds like a crazy waste of money, please don't go ahead with it! I feel the City could cut a few things and get the increase lower. P. Kiesel, Vernon/Blake area.

Jeff Gisselbeck Lanham Ln, I have been a life time resident of edina. Edina residents have trusted city leadership until now. Thankfully, people are taking notice of the bloated city hall. I feel we have far too many employees than is required/government in general. Is that a reason we need to remodel city hall after we just made it Green! with improvements. I am wondering why we have a humans rights Manager/department person. Affordability is now the buzz word for some people and now it has finally hit edina. I will be soon fighting the city on a street project imposing Another 10k on me. yes the street needs replacing badly. However, the proposed sidewalk is a want by some planing/transportation committe 10+ years ago that would love to get cars off the roads. I am sure the city can save money by not imposing an unwanted feature with very little benefit. They can also provide a street plan without sidewalks which they have not done at all or will I was told. As I am heading into my senior years I am wonder if I will be able to afford edina after a lifetime. Why are we building a piece of artwork over Hwy 62 for a bridge? No Tunnel under France Ave. combining health department with Hennepin County etc Please use City manager. to study staff needs and make the adjustments. let's make edina staff/council accountable to maintain affordability. I am also wondering why residents only have 4 days for comments, because it takes staff 9 days to get feedback to the council? this comment was at the end of council meeting 12/2. thank you

Ed Mathie - 4011 Kipling Ave, and 33 year Morningsode resident. The City continues to confuse 'priorities' with pet projects and favors. In 2018 the city identified the sub-standard EMS response time for Morningside as a 'Priority', and yet this safety issue keeps losing funding. At the same time, we budget money for improvements to the pool (priority?), plan to remodel nearly new buildings, give out loads of unnecessary TIF money, and fund pet-project internship programs that offer questionable value to residents, and likely violated recruiting laws. We need to get back to real priorities, and fund them first, not last. The budget could be balanced if fewer pet projects and TIFs were treated like priorities.

My name is Gary Lee, 5621 Wycliffe Road, Edina

Our country was born because of taxation without representation. Although the current process gives the appearance of representation, it seems to me the process is based on overwhelming the public with complexity which renders most unable to participate. The process begins with an assessed home value, simple enough, but then a homeowner decision whether they have the time and cause to appeal while not knowing what the full effect of a valuation increase will be since the proposed levies from the various taxing district budgets haven't been established. Next are the budget hearing meetings for county, city, school and now even special taxing districts cleverly created. Residents need to have enough knowledge about each budget and then time to make an appeal about each one in addition to actually believing that the time invested in delivering their comment wouldn't simply be swept aside. Finally, a black box algorithm uses property value and approved budgets to deliver the homeowner property taxes.

After living in Edina for 25 years and recently retiring, I did a remodel that I promised my wife when we moved in. Our assessed value went up 38%. The problem is our property taxes went up 51%! The breakdown of our tax increases for the myriad of taxing districts is: Hennepin county +53%, City of Edina +58%, School District #273 +45%, Metro Special Taxing District +44%, Other Special Taxing District +49%.

Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, but what is upsetting is that there isn't any real process to discuss or appeal.

Way to much TIF money --- never needed to do any of it since Edina was a 1st class city. Now we are a city of tax and spend more --- out of control

My name is Dan Miller, I live at 5224 Meadow Ridge in Edina, and I have a comment on the proposed City of Edina tax levy for next year. I think that there are several things that ought to be cut and not included in the plan. The first thing that I have on there is the planning and design for renovation of the Edina City Hall and Police Department. I think those buildings are relatively new, far newer than the home that I live in, and having just built those a number of years ago, I think that we should make do and not spend money to renovate either of those facilities. Secondly, I would say that unless there is a demonstrated need that we are not meeting, I would not support the addition of the twelve paramedics and firefighters. Again, that's conditioned on the fact that there is not a gap in service today. If there is a gap or people are not being (especially for emergency care) attended to promptly, I think that that makes some sense to increase staffing. Short of that, I would not support that. I would not support the study of City staffing and I also don't support many of the Better Together initiatives. I'd like to keep our tax increase smaller than it is, and I appreciate you listening to my comments. (Voicemail received 11/20/25 at 1:18 PM. Transcribed by City Staff)

The affordable housing mandate needs to be reviewed. Edina and it’s taxpayers have funded enough at this time

I am appalled by this budget. You are seeking an 11% increase this year, and a further 9% next year. Does anybody there think that is remotely prudent at a time when housing is increasingly unaffordable? Please reconsider this extremely ill timed and ill advised budget. You guys are spending like drunken sailors. Please let the adults into the budget process and do not pass this levy.

Anyone that lives in Edina and owns property can easily afford this. As an Edina resident, we are not an affordable city and make no efforts trying to be - so anyone complaining they can't is just wrong.

There are a few concerns/thoughts though:
-We just remodeled the city hall for how many hundreds of thousands of dollars to reduce public access and now we want to remodel it again?
-What if we reduced TIF financing for all these projects. We are so picky about what and how these developments are, we are forcing developers hands who then demand TIF and reduced the usage of taxes. Example: the recent gas station and city council members trying to force no diesel because they don't want trucks. Fine, when they move or get something delivered-no trucks in the city-they can haul it themselves in their range rover (which most models take diesel HA!!)
-There's definitely areas like public health, mental health, etc where we can offload services to the county and are better at handling at scale.

My name is Cameron and I live in Pamela Park with my wife and two children. I challenge the city to lower taxes rather than increase them by double digits. The total value of real estate in Edina has increased by about 25% or 3 billion dollars in the last five years. The city is taxing that real estate, which has significantly grown the city’s budget, yet the city budget is outpacing this growth, growing 40% since 2020. This unsustainable growth trend needs to stop and the city needs to focus on balancing the budget instead of asking residents to keep opening their wallets. This is a well funded and well run city, but an 11% increase (which is unlikely to ever be decreased) is irresponsible. Reduce, don’t increase taxes. I imagine the city could generate significant budget reductions by leveraging AI and having fewer, more productive employees. Someone needs to make the hard decision to reduce payroll costs. Another idea is to simply cut some unnecessary budget items. The city made a big deal about not getting a grant and having to increase the budget to fund an ambulance. I hope the city doesn’t make a habit of asking residents to fund every pet project that isn’t successful at securing grant money. This increase is over $300 a year for most home owners in Edina and well over $500 for neighbors in Pamela Park. Thanks but no thanks.

I'd echo previous comments about phasing a tax increase. If a goal is truly to make Edina more affordable, increases like the ones we've seen in the past need to slow. I'd like to better understand what changes would be made to our Town Hall. I've been for voting and City Council meetings and think it's one of the nicest Town Hall's I've been to. I support the improvements to the other Strong Foundation items. I also support the improvements proposed under Reliable Service Better Together, and Other. I take issue with some of the items under Livable City. As previously mentioned, this tax increase is contradictory to that priority. I also have an issue pouring money into a Comprehensive Plan that city officials ignore. I've sat in on several City Council Plans to hear changes to the Comprehensive Plan or Zoning Plan when projects were going in for variances. Very few times were those variances not granted. What is the point of having a Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Plan if city officials ignore what's in them? I do not support modifications or changes to these plans unless the city officials agree narrow their standards for allowing variances.

I too believe the city is overstaffed. I've worked on many budgets in my career and know first hand you need to reduce staffing when budget growth is not sustainable. Surely, there are efficiencies available today that didn't exist in prior years that can be harnessed and enable staff reductions. I would like to see proof that the budget process took a hard look at staffing, rather than trying to appease us by showing our total dollar increase was less than a handful of other cities.

I appreciate the City’s commitment to strong public services and community investment. However, I’m concerned that the proposed 11.03% property tax increase may unintentionally undercut some of the goals by putting financial pressure on residents who are already struggling to stay in their homes.

Over the past few years, Edina has seen sharp increases in home values, which automatically push property taxes higher even without a levy hike. For many residents — especially those on fixed or limited incomes, retirees, and long-term homeowners — this creates a compounding burden. These are often the same community members who helped shape the neighborhoods we all value, yet they’re now being priced out by rising assessments and tax rates.

I’d encourage the Council to explore ways to not go forward with the proposed tax increase or phase it in more gradually. That could include reprioritizing some capital projects or delaying nonessential facility improvements until interest rates and construction costs stabilize. The city could also re-prioritize/allocate budget funds. By doing so, Edina can still advance its core priorities — public safety, livability, and inclusion — while keeping the city accessible to a broader range of residents.

A “Livable City” shouldn’t just mean ballooning personnel expenses and services; it should also mean economic stability and housing security.

Thank you.

There has to be a path to keeping levy increases below double digits. The Finance team, the City Manager's team, and the City Council needs to be focused on this. It's not like the city has been starved in the past. Residents have been very reasonable in supporting past increases.
But look at the staffing increase of 79 people over the past decade. Over 50 of these have been in police and fire departments, and you're looking to add 12-18 more in 2026. It seems we got by just fine pre-2015 with less staff. I am all in favor of public safety, but you HAVE to critically evaluate each hire. And planning for a third fire station now? The second one just opened. I can't imagine what the staffing request will be for that.
The city touts its relatively low tax burden compared to neighboring towns. But they don't have some of the revenue generators that we have: Braemar golf, Braemar skating, liquor stores, and aquatic center. I may be missing some. Are these being managed to optimize profitability, and thus, reducing our levy burden? How about converting an existing FTE to run these operations like real businesses?
I really feel city hall has run amok and the city council is asleep at the wheel. I would love to see some zero-based budgeting instituted to critically evaluate what the city does, and how it can be accomplished more efficiently and effectively. This necessarily entails looking at job performance, and if you can replace a sub par performer with a star, but eliminate two jobs in the process, that's a win. This doesn't mean Edina can't be a great place to work. It means demonstrating leadership, vision, and accountability. But it does mean not building bridges to nowhere.

I am disappointed to see that funding was not added to the PACS fund with the change to utility franchise fees to increase revenue, since they are the direct revenue source for the PACS fund. If we hope to meet the goals outlined in the Comprehensive Plan, Climate Action Plan and Living Streets Plan, there needs to be action to go along with the words.