Residents largely stamped their approval on the Dakota County budget process last week at the Truth-in-Taxation meeting on the county’s 2026 budget and levy increase. While the 2026 budget raises the levy by 9.9%, the comments heard from the public focused on sticker shock, what social programs were cut within the county budget, and increases in home valuations.
“I’ve been impressed by the budget process,” said Bob Stupka, a Mendota Heights resident who spoke at the meeting.

The budget
The 2025 budgeting process has been a difficult one for governments across the state with costs shifts coming from both state and federal levels in addition to high inflation that has driven up the costs of many services governments provide.
“In a normal year, the budget process takes months of preparation and a lot of difficult work by leadership and staff, and I think we all know that this has not been a normal year,” said Mike Slavik, chair of the Dakota County Board of Commissioners at the top of the meeting.
The 2026 Dakota County Budget is $527.7 million, with a levy of $184.2 million. The 9.9% levy increase translates into an annual increase of $68 for a median value home in the county. In Hastings, that amount is slightly higher, due to a nearly $20,000 increase in the median home price from 2025-2026 to $331,000 and therefore translates to a 12.53% increase or an annual increase of $73.55.
This sharp rise in levy increase comes even as the county has cut 44 positions, many of which are currently vacant, and made more than $8 million in cuts, many of which were in social programs centered on homelessness and housing.
Will Wallo, finance manager at Dakota County, styled the 2026 budget as “addressing a lot of cuts and cost shifts from state and federal government,” referencing both unfunded state mandates and cost shifts from St. Paul like Paid Family Medical Leave and The Act, as well as funding cuts and increased administrative costs at the federal level from H.R. 1, also known as the Big Beautiful Bill, which was signed into law earlier this summer.
County Manager Heidi Walsch echoed the sentiment, especially when talking about cuts, which were centered in non-mandated social programs, many of which focused on homelessness and housing: “There are very few things for which we are not mandated.”

Cuts
More than half of the $8 million in cuts in the 2026 Dakota County Budget are in social service and community corrections with $2.7 million in cuts to social service and $1.6 million in cuts to community corrections.
In specific for social services, the budget includes cutting positions in Children’s Mental Health Collaborative and Early Childhood Program, Youth Services, a child Foster care licensing social worker, and a relative search social worker position.
The county will end several adult service contracts that have to do with moving and home furnishing, as well as ending or reducing a number of housing programs and contracts meant to bolster residents against homelessness.
Descriptions of these cuts are clear on how they would affect the county:
“Reducing or eliminated moving and home furnishing/bed contracts creates additional barriers for people exiting homelessness. Ending contracts will reduce general/non-mandated community resources for older adults which has the potential to increase need for mandated services,” said the description of ending adult service contracts from the July budget workshop.
Ending the contract is expected to save Dakota County $320,000.
“Homelessness and Housing is not mandated and that’s why it’s cut,” said Walsh in the July budget workshop.
Other major cuts include the elimination of three full-time equivalents (FTEs) for school resource officers from the Sheriff’s Office (an expense of $405,529) unallocated building costs associated with “right-sizing” county buildings, (an expense of $300,000), and three public assistance positions (an expense of $302,611).

Structural issues
The 2026 budget is also meant to address several structural funding issues throughout the county, from staff positions being paid from one-time funding sources to the county’s falling unassigned fund balance.
The 2026 budget allocated $3.1 million towards reducing the county’s structural deficit, with future funds planned for 2029 and 2030. Those future structural fixes are estimated beyond the next two years because those years are already expected to have high levy rate increases due to further cost shifts, especially from federal cuts.

Comparison
This year, Dakota County has lost its title as the county with the lowest tax rate in the State, surpassed by Rock County, located on the border of South Dakota and Iowa in the southwest corner of Minnesota with a population of less than 10,000 residents.
Dakota County remains, however, the metro county with the lowest 2026 levy per capita at $406 million, less than half that of Hennepin County.
Wallo was quick to point out a few comparisons between this year’s levy increases and other nearby counties.
Scott, Anoka, and Ramsey counties all currently are expected to have a 9% levy increase. Carver, Hennepin, and Washington are expected to have an 8%, 7%, and 6% levy increase respectively this year.
The 9.9% levy increase is a steep jump from nearly two decades of 1-3% levy increases since 2009 which has lagged behind the metro county 20-year average levy increase of 3.8%. In the July budget workshop, Wallo estimated that this lag in levy growth when compared to the average levy increase, has cost the county some $551 million since 2005.
That lag, in addition to state and federal cost shifts, is part of the reason the county continues to estimate double digit, or near-double-digit levy increases for both 2027 and 2028.
The budget is expected to be adopted later this month.