Residents in Oakdale, Stillwater and Woodbury on Tuesday voted to levy local sales taxes or extend an existing one to pay for municipal projects ranging from parks to public safety improvements, but voters in Cottage Grove were not supportive of their city’s request.
City officials support enacting a local-option sales tax as a way to capture dollars spent by out-of-towners to help pay for needed improvements within the city limits. Each ballot question needed a majority of votes to prevail.
Cottage Grove
Voters in Cottage Grove made it clear on Tuesday that they did not want the city to levy a 0.5% sales tax to help fund $36 million in improvements to Mississippi Dunes Reserve, Hamlet Park and the River Oaks Golf Course. The sales tax would have generated about $1.2 million a year.
Each of the three projects was a separate question on the ballot, and all three failed.
Sixty percent of voters voted “No” on Question 1, which covered a potential $17 million in improvements to Hamlet Park. Fifty-nine percent of voters voted “No” on Question 2, which covered a potential $13 million in improvements at Mississippi Dunes Park. Seventy-two percent of voters voted “No” on Question 3, which covered a potential $6 million in improvements at River Oaks Golf Course and Event Center.
Mayor Myron Bailey said Wednesday that city officials tried to make it clear that the 0.5% sales tax would cover improvements at all three parks, but some voters may have thought that each required its own 0.5% sales tax for a total of 1.5%, “which obviously was not the case.”
The park projects remain in the city’s capital-improvement plans, but will now take longer to complete, he said.
Mississippi Dunes Park may be eligible for bonding or grant opportunities at the state or federal funding, “so we’re hoping that we will still be able to get the park built, maybe sooner than it would normally be.”
The Minnesota Legislature mandated that the projects be listed separately on the ballot since they were in three different locations. “If we had to do it all over again, I’d have one question on the ballot,” Bailey said. “I’d focus on one park and not not try to make it three. I think that was a that was a mistake on our part — from a city’s perspective.”
Bailey said he doubted city officials would go out for another local-option sales tax in the near future. “The citizens stated to us that they were concerned about how we were going to pay for these projects, and, unfortunately, now I guess I’ll say it’s going to be all on the the local taxpayer to help fund those just over a longer period of time,” he said. “We’re still going to plan to build these parks and add the amenities to the parks, but it’s going to take a little longer.”
Oakdale
Voters in Oakdale on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved measures related to the city’s local-option sales tax.
Two years ago, voters approved a 0.5% local sales tax to fund a $15 million expansion and renovation of the city’s police station and a new $22 million public works facility. The sales tax was implemented on April 1, 2023, and will remain in place until 2048 or until the funds have been collected, whichever is sooner.
But because construction costs have risen due to inflation, city officials went back to voters on Tuesday and asked them to vote on two questions related to extending the sunset date by five years – from 2048 to 2053 – to raise an additional $9 million to close the funding gap.
The first question on the ballot, which covered the $3 million that would be raised to cover the funding gap for the work at the police station, passed with 68% voting yes. The second question covered the $6 million that would be raised to cover the funding gap for the new public works facility; it passed with 71% voting yes.
Since both were approved, the total funds raised will increase from $37 million to $46 million.
Stillwater
Voters in Stillwater supported a 0.5% sales tax on general purchases to pay for improvements at parks along the St. Croix River with a vote of 63%. The sales tax is expected to raise up to $6.2 million over a 10-year period starting next year, city officials said.
The tax will sunset once funds required for the projects are collected, or in 10 years, whichever occurs first.
The sales tax will help pay for projects along the city’s riverfront including renovation of the Aiple house and construction of a parking lot at Lumberjack Landing Park, a new park north of downtown Stillwater; picnic shelter, turf, irrigation and signage at Bridgeview Park; a new park south of downtown Stillwater; and riverbank stabilization.
Mayor Ted Kozlowski said the city’s communication plan regarding the need for the sales tax worked.
“Dude, we crushed it,” Kozlowski said Wednesday. “These things rarely pass or fail by more than 10%, and this was, like, 2 to 1. We went out and spoke to all the different groups – Lions, Rotary, Elks, you name it. That’s the benefit of living in a small town like Stillwater, it’s not super hard to communicate with everybody, and our city staff did a really good job with that. Everybody inherently knows that Stillwater is a destination. We’ve always attracted people from outside the city that use our park and use our amenities, and we’ve always had to foot the bill for that 100 percent, so getting some help with these things that benefit many more people than just our residents is a really good thing for our city – and it’s good for our taxpayers.”
Woodbury
Woodbury voters supported a 0.5% sales tax for up to 20 years to raise $50 million for the construction of an expanded public safety campus for EMS, police and fire services. The measure passed with 54% voting in favor.
City officials have already approved the renovation plans, which include a makeover of the city’s current Public Safety Building, which was built in 1975, and the purchase of the nearby Washington County Service Center, built in 1986, to make room for a new fire station.
The campus expansion has already been approved, so a “no” vote would mean Woodbury officials “would need to fund renovation and construction of Woodbury’s Public Safety Campus from other tax sources,” according to city officials.
Washington County Board
Stillwater resident Bethany Cox, director of development at the Wild Rivers Conservancy, defeated state Rep. Mark Wiens, R-Lake Elmo, in the race for the Washington County commissioner District 3 seat. Cox won with 51% of the vote.
Commissioner Fran Miron ran unopposed for the District 1 seat.
For complete results from county, city and school board races, go to twincities.com/news/politics/elections.