Ramsey County Board Workshop on County Program Aid and PILT - October 14, 2025
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Ramsey County Board Workshop on County Program Aid and PILT - October 14, 2025
This workshop, held on October 14, 2025 from 10:30 a.m. in Courthouse Room 220, provided a deep dive into County Program Aid (CPA) and Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) as part of developing the county's 2026 legislative agenda. No votes were taken; the session was recorded and live-streamed. Staff presented data on Ramsey County's unique fiscal challenges, including high tax-exempt property rates, the CPA formula's 0.25 multiplier, and limited PILT revenue. Board members discussed legislative strategies, including a proposed 'Capital Complex County Host Program' and modifications to the CPA formula.
Discussion Items
- Property Tax Levy and Budget Reliance: Staff noted Ramsey County relies on property taxes for roughly 46% of its budget, compared to a national average of about 26%. Hennepin County's 2026 budget sits at approximately 36%. The county faces pressure from federal funding shifts and the state budget deficit.
- Tax-Exempt Property: Ramsey County has approximately 14.2% tax-exempt property value, higher than Hennepin (12%) and other metro counties (about 9%). The Capitol Complex, concentrated in downtown St. Paul, includes state-owned buildings, with an estimated market value of ~$480 million and ~5.2 million square feet.
- County Program Aid Formula: The CPA formula uses a population-based multiplier; Ramsey and Hennepin receive only 25% of the formula output. Ramsey County receives about $7 million annually from the tax-based equalization component, versus $27 million if treated like other counties. Over the past eight years, the county estimates it has missed $136 million (or ~$150 million inflation-adjusted) due to the multiplier. County need-based aid is about $19 million per year, but a single mandate (Anoka Metro Regional Treatment Center) costs the county $16 million annually.
- PILT: Ramsey County receives ~$172,000 annually from state PILT (based largely on acreage) and no federal PILT. Federal PILT trends were noted as a potential risk for rural counties, possibly creating partnership opportunities.
- Proposed Options: Staff presented four possible legislative approaches: (1) Change or phase out the CPA multiplier; (2) Create a mandated study for a more equitable formula; (3) Incorporate a capital complex payment into existing PILT; (4) Create a new 'Capital Complex County Host Program' based on square footage or estimated market value, potentially yielding $5–24 million annually. A fifth option is to advocate for increased resources in the need-based CPA component.
- Commissioner Positions: Multiple commissioners expressed support for pursuing a legislative fix, emphasizing the need to tell Ramsey County's story of inequity. Commissioner McGuire recalled historical legislative compromises and stressed the importance of adding new funds rather than reallocating existing CPA dollars. Commissioner Ortega highlighted the need to quantify the extra costs of hosting the Capitol Complex (e.g., public safety). Commissioner Jadmins suggested partnering with advocacy groups to frame property taxes as regressive and seek support for less regressive revenue shifts. Chairman noted that every 1% of the levy is roughly $4 million, so added revenue could reduce taxpayer burden.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken.
- Direction to staff to prepare a strategic communications plan to share data with the legislature and stakeholders, including a 'balancing strategies' slide to show multiple approaches.
- Board members requested additional charts and analyses, including a county-by-county breakdown of tax-exempt property and a table of unfunded mandates.
- The county manager indicated this topic will be featured in upcoming legislative budget workshops and advocacy with delegates.
- Staff will refine options and prepare a legislative packaging workshop to further clarify priorities and next steps.
Meeting Transcript
Are going to we're going to get started here now. Welcome everyone. Thank you all to for being here. Welcome to the uh board workshop on county program aid and payment into taxes. This is a topic that we've all been thinking about and talking about for many years. For a number of years, and we're just excited that we can get some you know in-depth information on how we can uh use that this uh this information to our benefit with the with the legislature with our with uh the uh revenue that we need and see what we can do. So uh courtesy reminder that this board workshop is recorded and it's live streamed on Zoom webinar. There will be no votes taken during this workshop. We're gonna start with an introduction of commissioners and the um audience that's here, and then we'll we'll begin. So Mary Joe McGuire, Commissioner District 2. Tara Jadmins, Commissioner District One. Ralph Aelotinga, District Five. Garrison McMurdo, Commissioner District Three. Kelly Miller, Commissioner District 7. Tracy West, County Auditor. Jen Hamrick, senior policy analyst. Larry Terman, planning manager. Pat Chapman, Ramsey County Assessor. Lindbacker County Manager, Rena Morrey, Commissioner District 4. Jason Reddy, that's pleasing. Yeah, gotcha. Carrie Collins, Deputy County Manager at Governor That's it. Jennifer Rurk, Director of Government. Michael Silco, Director of Policy and Administrative Strategy. Veronica Jackson, Braithman Health Equity Administrator. Karen Francois, Deputy County Manager for the Information Public Records. And I'm one of uh Ramsey County's lobbyist. Alexandra. We have one more service. So thank you. Thank you, everyone. We really appreciate it. So this morning's conversation is intended to be a deep dive into the county program aid and payment and taxes or PILT. So these, as I've said before, pivot to the discussed, and we want to make them a part of our 2026 legislative agenda. So today we're going to focus on learning about the current state of both CPA and PILT and here from here from our staff several options for legislative action to address the issues that are currently impacting Ramsey County's tax base. As we have talked about through the recent budget hearings, there are a lot of added financial pressures on our budget due to shifts in federal and state funding. Our county is in a unique position in several aspects, adding barriers that do not exist in the same ways for our neighboring counties. As we all on the board are committed to meeting the needs of community, this workshop will highlight strategies we can lead to bring in additional revenue from the state to reduce the burden on our levy in future years. So with that, I'm going to hand it off to planning manager Larry Timmerman. We'll kick off the presentation. Is that correct? Is that just me and get up to you later? Yes, thank you. Thank you, man. Thank you, Madam Chair, Commissioners, to our panel here, and also to uh our finance department, our government relations department and others around the county who have contributed to this work uh going back uh a couple years with our legislative action was when we uh first built forward some direction around how can we make this better for rent to town and for our property taxpayers. Um so by way of agenda today, we're gonna start with an overview of our property tax base and uh even before that the recommendations we'll have at the end that we'll talk through that are um we'll start with just the basics and then we'll build through and and provide education on county program aid and payment load of taxes, and we'll come back at the end to a broader discussion. So um, if you have technical questions as we go through, please ask, and we will address them. If it's a broader discussion point on how this all fits together, if we could hold that. Um that would be probably most helpful to do at the end as we get through all the information. So thank you.
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