Stearns County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a preliminary 2027 property-tax levy of $108,947,156, a 6.81% increase over 2026, as part of a proposed $216,247,298 county budget. The number marks the latest step in months of budget wrangling that started with county departments asking for far more.
According to stcloudlive.com, the approved levy represents a 6.81% increase over 2026 within that proposed $216,247,298 total county budget. The figure is well below where things stood earlier in the process, when department heads initially requested spending that would have driven the levy up 14.3%, and a July baseline pegged the increase at 7.14%, per the same outlet.
WJON reported that those earlier preliminary figures had called for roughly a seven-percent increase in the property tax levy before commissioners pared the request down further. Outgoing County Administrator Mike Williams pointed to rising personnel costs, federal and state mandates, and an increase in human services personnel as the main drivers behind the increase, according to the station.
What the Levy Means for Tax Rates
The county's overall tax capacity is projected to grow by 5.44%, which the same stcloudlive.com report says leaves the county's projected net tax rate increase at roughly 1.3%. That distinction matters because a bigger tax base can soften the blow of a bigger levy, spreading the increase across more taxable value rather than piling it all onto existing property owners.
The proposed 2027 budget adds 11 new positions, though only two of those hires would directly affect the property tax levy, the report notes. County reserves remain a mixed picture heading into the final budget push: the general fund is funded to 56% of capacity, with highway reserves at 70% and human services reserves at 54%, per stcloudlive.com.
Timeline to a Final Vote
Tuesday's action is only preliminary. Under Minnesota law, a preliminary levy can be lowered but not raised before final adoption, and the county plans to keep reviewing expenses before a Dec. 1 public hearing and a Dec. 15 final budget vote, stcloudlive.com reports. County officials have also sketched out where the levy could be headed over the next several years: internal projections cited by the outlet show the levy climbing from $102 million in 2026 to almost $140 million by 2031.
For taxing districts that straddle county lines, Minnesota statute sets a hard deadline for this stage of the process. Under Minnesota Revisor of Statutes Section 275.065, a home county auditor must certify a proposed levy and local tax rate to any other affected county auditor by Oct. 5, or by Oct. 10 if the home county has agreed to delay certification.
How Stearns Compares to Its Neighbors
Stearns County is far from alone in pushing levies higher for 2027. Olmsted County set its preliminary levy at $151,350,166, a 6.8% increase over 2026, according to krocnews.com. Wright County commissioners unanimously approved a preliminary $228.14 million budget and a $113.13 million levy, a 6.54% increase, on Sept. 15, as reported by hometownsource.com, even as that county's tax rate is projected to decline slightly from roughly 35.19% to about 34.8%.
Sherburne County took a rockier path, with commissioners voting 3-2 on Sept. 15 to approve an 8.48% increase in their preliminary 2027 levy, hometownsource.com reported separately. To the west, Clay County commissioners unanimously set a preliminary certified levy of $50.5 million for 2027, a 5.79% increase from the prior year once adjusted for tax-base growth, according to inforum.com. That outlet also noted Clay County is facing an 11.9% increase in social service costs from 2026 to 2027, a cost pressure echoed in Stearns County's own budget discussions around human-services staffing.
Stearns County residents will get another chance to weigh in before anything is final. The Dec. 1 public hearing gives homeowners a formal opportunity to react to the numbers before commissioners cast their final vote on the 2027 budget and levy on Dec. 15.
