DULUTH — In setting the maximum possible levy Monday night, the City Council left the door open for more spending than Mayor Emily Larson originally proposed.
The actual 2025 budget won’t be formally adopted until later this year, but councilors passed a couple amendments to the mayor’s proposal, in hopes of accommodating raises for local firefighters and more spending on library materials.
Members of the Duluth Fire Department could receive an 8% bump in pay next year, making their wages more competitive with those of other firefighters throughout the state, courtesy of Councilors Hannah Alstead, Arik Forsman, Mike Mayou and Terese Tomanek. They propose to fund the $1.07 million cost of the raises in part by raising local property taxes and also by drawing on some of the proceeds from the recent sale of a building to Cirrus Aircraft for $3.45 million.
At present, Duluth offers its firefighters some of the lowest wages in the state, especially for those just entering the profession, where the city ranks dead last. The starting annual compensation for a Duluth firefighter is $53,797 — just 81.6% of the state average annual full-time pay for rookies statewide, $65,901.
The same four councilors also successfully advocated for an additional $250,000 to boost the Duluth Public Library’s budget for new library materials next year, again drawing on a mix of property taxes and the Cirrus building sale proceeds.
The additional funding would augment the library’s budget for more new materials by nearly 80%. Library spending on its collection had remained frozen at $315,000 for more than two decades, even as inflation has greatly diminished the buying power of those funds.
Combined, the increased firefighter pay and the enhanced library funding would add 1.12% to the city’s current tax levy if they are incorporated into the final city budget later this year. For the owner of a median priced $213,100 home in Duluth, the proposed tax levy, as amended, would annually translate into an additional $7.16 in property taxes to support higher firefighter pay and an additional 86 cents for the public library system.
Larson initially had proposed a 2% levy increase that would have necessitated virtually no increase in municipal property tax rates, due to the growing value of Duluth’s property base.
Housing inspector, diversity
A couple other general fund amendments offered by at large Councilor Azrin Awal failed to garner adequate support to advance Monday night. She had proposed the city raise an additional $110,000 in property taxes to pay the cost of hiring another housing inspector. Larson already had included funding for one more position to the city’s current four-person team of housing inspectors in her budget. Larson aims to pay for that hire by diverting some funds that would otherwise have flowed to the city’s Housing Trust, designed to help boost the local inventory of affordable housing.
Awal argued that the city needs a second additional housing inspector to address its 2,600-unit backlog of rental housing awaiting inspection, suggesting it could be funded by 0.27% property tax increase, adding $1.93 to the annual property taxes of a median-priced home in Duluth.
Jon Otis, the Duluth Fire Department’s assistant chief of life safety, said it would likely take a full complement of 10 housing inspectors for the city to catch up and keep up with inspections, especially with all the new rental units being added to the local market each year.
Nevertheless, the council passed on the idea of adding a second housing inspector to the city’s payroll, on a 3-5 vote, with Councilor Noah Hobbs abstaining.
Awal also proved unsuccessful in her bid for funding to create a new staff position for someone to lead its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at an estimated cost of $160,000 for salary and benefits.
“We need a position within Duluth dedicated to promoting equity, diversity and inclusion within the city’s policies, programs and services to ensure all of our residents are being served,” she said.
Peter Passi covers city government for the Duluth News Tribune. He joined the paper in April 2000, initially as a business reporter but has worked a number of beats through the years.
