Your 2027 Proposed Property Tax Notice: Questions and Answers

The County calls it the Proposed Levies and Taxes Notice. It has three parts:

• Values and Classification: your property’s class, homestead status, estimated market value, homestead exclusion, and taxable value.
• Proposed Tax: your proposed 2027 property tax.
• Property Tax Statement: marked “Coming in 2027.” That statement, mailed in March, is your bill.

Below those, a section titled “Proposed Property Taxes and Meetings by Jurisdiction for Your Property” lists every government on your bill, with its 2026 tax, its proposed 2027 tax, and when and where it meets. Your notice does not include special assessments, which can be added to your final bill.

Your property tax bill represents your portion of the total amount being collected in an area, including local levies, referenda, state, and more. Your county, your city, your school district, the Metropolitan Council, and other regional agencies each set their own levy, and each increase lands on the same bill. Your bill is your portion of those totals across all properties in an area, depending on the value of the property and the property type.

Each part of your bill is a separate decision, made by a separate elected or appointed body. Knowing who decides each part means you can take your questions and concerns to the right place.

On September 29, the Hennepin County Board set the 2027 maximum property tax levy at 8.15%. That number represents the increase in the total amount the County collects in property taxes, not an 8.15% increase to your whole bill. Hennepin’s levy increase means a single-family home at the countywide median estimated market value would pay $139 more a year in 2027, about $11.50 a month.

For a single-family home at the median estimated market value in each District 2 city, the County’s portion rises by:

• Minneapolis: $136 a year for 2027, about $11 a month
• Golden Valley: $166 a year for 2027, about $14 a month
• Medicine Lake: $303 a year for 2027, about $25 a month
• Plymouth: $186 a year for 2027, about $16 a month
• St. Anthony Village: $116 a year for 2027, about $10 a month

Your portion is based on your property’s taxable value and property type, as a share of all property across the county. That means your County portion can change by more or less than 8.15%, depending on how your home’s value changed compared with everything else. Your notice shows your exact number.

The section of your notice titled “Proposed Property Taxes and Meetings by Jurisdiction for Your Property” lists each one side by side. In Minneapolis, for example, the 2027 increase for a median-value home is $136 from the County’s 8.15% maximum levy and more than $409 from the City’s 11.87% maximum levy, which includes the Park Board. Minneapolis Public Schools, the Metropolitan Council, and several regional agencies add their own.

In 2027, you will experience these decisions by receiving one total and paying one bill.

Downtown Minneapolis commercial values have fallen almost 35% since 2022. When that tax base shrinks, someone covers the difference, and in Minneapolis, residential owners’ share of property taxes has grown from 47% to 56% since 2020.

Your share can also go down. When new development is built, there are more shoulders carrying the same load, so your portion may shrink, or your portion remains steady even when levies increase. In 2026 alone, development along the Green Line Extension is generating $35.7 million in property tax revenue that is not falling on existing property tax owners. Around Prospect Park Station on the Green Line, existing homes saw their taxes grow at just half the regional pace over 17 years. New development around Light Rail relieves the burden on homeowners and other residential property owners.

Federal and state funding for mandated human services drops by nearly $28 million next year, and the scale of disinvestment in services our residents rely on is truly unprecedented. When that funding is cut, the need does not go away, and neither does the mandate. The cost then lands on the County, and on our neighbors. Local government is the last line of defense. We are making up for some of it this year with property tax, and we know that is not sustainable.

Local government exists to serve residents, not to absorb the costs of federal failures.

Hennepin County approaches our budget differently than many other local jurisdictions. Since January, County Administration presented regularly and publicly at Board and committee meetings and Board briefings, and received clear direction from this Board: do everything we can to protect democracy, public services, and our most vulnerable neighbors, and work with other local governments to streamline services and reduce the overall pressure on residential property taxpayers. Instead of meeting this budget for the first time in the fall, Commissioners and residents saw the choices as they were being made. Because Commissioners and County staff started this process early and in public, we solved problems before they reached the proposed budget:

• We preserved library hours.
• We avoided mass County layoffs.
• We faced an 18.5% increase in employee health insurance costs, and we reached an agreement with 16 unions to share that increase in a predictable and sustainable way.
• Our proposed levy came in lower than the 8.5% that was initially projected.

We also fought to keep costs off property taxpayers. To date, Hennepin has gone to court and secured injunctions protecting more than $531 million in federal funding, money that funds services our most vulnerable residents depend on. Without it, those costs would land on property taxpayers, or the services would end. And during the 2025 Legislative Session, counties came together to defeat major cost shifts that would have landed directly on property taxpayers.

Most of what the County does is required by state or federal law, and cutting the services that prevent bigger problems would cost residents more later.

A levy is not a number on a spreadsheet. Levies fund teachers, snowplow drivers, and social workers. Levies fund essential services, libraries, and emergency response. When we invest in core upstream services, it does prevent further mandated spending.

Strong public goods create strong communities. When our shared institutions like our hospital, libraries, housing and shelter, regional transit, and social safety net are healthy, everyone is better off. When they are allowed to fail, the most vulnerable are harmed first. I believe strongly that investment in public goods and services is how we build strong communities, and we will not shrink our way to the future our kids deserve and our elders have earned.

All year, this Board set clear direction to protect democracy, public services, and our most vulnerable neighbors, and this budget meets that direction. This is my first time on the Board where the overall budget has decreased, and I want to express honestly that I felt saddened when I first saw it. I feel saddened because I believe strongly that investment in public goods and services is how we build strong communities. But we are in a specific moment, and this is what is necessary as we look ahead.

I am very proud of the County’s workforce and partners. We have advanced incredible results in a time of great need, and we will do so again.

• Transit: The County’s $1.896 billion commitment to the Blue Line Extension is met entirely through the County’s 0.5% transportation sales and use tax, not County property taxes.
• Libraries: The ballpark sales tax pays for extended library hours across the county.
• Our public hospital: This Board voted unanimously to support dedicated sales tax revenue for HCMC, because Hennepin cannot mathematically property-tax a solution. The Legislature responded with $205 million immediately and a $500 million hospital reserve.

Part of Hennepin’s job is to ask what the service is, who receives it, who delivers it, and who pays. And right now, property taxpayers cannot take the burden being shifted onto counties, cities, schools, and more. For Hennepin County’s budget, every $11 million is the equivalent of a 1% increase in the property tax levy, and Hennepin residents can’t afford enormous property tax increases. Hennepin County cannot solve these systemic issues on our own. We must change the math equation on local government revenue in order to proudly continue the services that our residents have earned and deserve. The 2027 budget process will soon be followed by a legislative session with key decisions at the state level next year. When we grow what we have to work with, we can give our neighbors what they’ve asked for, without asking stretched families to give even more.

Minnesota’s Truth in Taxation process lets you see your proposed taxes and weigh in before any of them are final. Your county, your school district, most cities, and the Metropolitan Council each hold an evening public meeting where residents can speak before each one sets its final levy. Your notice lists each meeting, and the County keeps a full list of Truth in Taxation meetings.

• Starting November 12: Every property owner will receive a notice of proposed 2027 taxes by mail, including when each government on your bill holds its Truth in Taxation meeting.
• December 1: The County’s Truth in Taxation hearing, 6 p.m., Hennepin County Government Center, County Board Room A-2400, 300 South 6th Street, Minneapolis. This is your opportunity to tell the County Board directly what you think of the proposed budget and levy before we vote. If you can’t attend, you can email budgetcomments@hennepin.us or leave a voicemail of under two minutes at 612-688-3545 on November 30.
• December 15: The County Board votes on the final budget.

The responsibility for keeping property taxes manageable is shared across every government whose levies make up your bill. To residents, truly, your feedback absolutely assists all of us elected policymakers, at the County Board and across your communities, during a very consequential time in our shared humanity. Make your voice heard with all of us who make those decisions.

• Homesteading: If you own and live in your home and have not homesteaded, apply online by December 31 to lower next year’s taxes. Homesteading saves households hundreds, even thousands of dollars per year, and makes you eligible for statewide property tax refunds.
• Special Property Tax Refund: If your homestead taxes rise more than 12% and at least $100, you may qualify for a state refund of up to $1,000, no matter your income.
• Renter’s Credit: If you rent, part of your rent pays property taxes, and you may be able to get some of it back through Minnesota’s Renter’s Credit when you file your state income taxes.