The city council earlier this month approved the preliminary budget and a 9.99% levy increase of all city’s approved levies over last year. This would be for taxes payable in 2026.
Finance Director Sheena Mulner told the council that rising costs continue to impact the city's budget, adding that city staff have been working extensively on the city's 2026 budget since April.
The city relies heavily on Local Government Aid (LGA) and taconite aids to fund the city's budget.
“Certified LGA only increased by $21,840 or 0.23 percent for 2026,” said Mulner. “Taconite taxes and aids are expected to decrease by $133,972 or 5.8 percent. At the same time, expenditures are expected to increase in the general fund by $1,203,393 or 5.4 percent.”
The preliminary levy requested is a bottom-line increase of 9.99% over last year's final levy. This includes the Hibbing Housing and Redevelopment Authority’s (HRA) preliminary levy request of $100,000 and the Chisholm-Hibbing Airport Authority’s (CHAA) preliminary levy request of $821,000, both of which were adopted during a special city council meeting on Sept. 10.
Preliminary levies are printed on proposed tax notices received by taxpayers in November. Now that the preliminary levy is set, city staff are already working toward making additional reductions to the budget and levy prior to setting the final levy in December.