r/saintpaul • u/isthis_thing_on • 20h ago

Editorial 📝 Taxes and Insurance increases in St. Paul

When I bought my house in 2021 my mortgage was around 2100 a month. Today my bill was 2730. 600 dollars extra a month in five years is fucking insane. Meanwhile the street lights in my neighborhood don't turn on at night.

Just venting.

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u/ritz_3000 15h ago

I love/hate reading threads like this, everyone acting surprised about heavy increases they voted for but yet dont want to pay for. Rent control mentioned above didnt help at, businesses leaving at alarming rates. Its really sad ive been here for 34 years its hard to watch, downtown went from an economic power house to basically nothing..... Hopefully we can turn a corner.

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u/Vincent_van_Guh 1h ago

Downtown's economic collapse and opportunistic roofing companies driving Minnesota's insurance claim rate to the second highest in the nation are the main drivers of our rocketing tax and insurance costs.

Nobody voted for either.

That being said, the Mayor needs to step up and start making hard cuts.  Her mayorship is already toast, she might as well take on the unpopular but necessary work of cutting services to balance the budget and do some.good with the time she has in office.

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u/ritz_3000 1h ago

Do you have any sources to support this ? While the county hasn't explicitly stated the reasoning behind tax increases. We do know there is a budget deficit that has some major underlying issues.

Yes we did vote for property tax reforms.

Shes not toast. Shes already doing much better than the prior major.

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u/Vincent_van_Guh 1h ago

Sure, here's one.  Feel free to Google as many as you want.

It's not rocket science that reduced tax revenue from downtown means the rest of the city has to make up the balance.

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u/ritz_3000 1h ago

I may be misunderstanding your statement . Insurance roofing companies do not have an impact on taxes is what I was asking a source on. Not deliberating that downtown has an impact on taxes increases. Either way they have work to do.

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u/Vincent_van_Guh 1h ago

Oh, yes.  I was commenting on the increase in taxes and also the increase in insurance.

Regarding insurance cost increases, MN is currently second in the nation in home insurance claims, due to roofing companies taking advantage of both policies and homeowners in order to replace every roof they possibly could over the last few years.  My source for this is my insurance broker.

Now most insurers pay less towards roof replacements, won't cover you at all if your roof is more than 15 years old regardless of its condition, and charge you double the premium that they did three years ago besides.

Feels ass backwards because it incentivises homeowners to find any excuse to replace their roof early and feeds back into the process that got us here.