The Eden Prairie City Council approved the city’s 2026 budget at Tuesday’s meeting, including a 5.6% increase in the property tax levy for homeowners. Finance Manager Tammy Wilson and City Manager Rick Getschow presented the budget.
The city estimates the median home value in 2026 will be $558,000, up from $530,000 in 2024 — an increase of about $200,000 over the past decade, Getschow said.
He said the first $500,000 of a home is taxed at 1%, and any value above that is taxed at 1.25%. Because the median value of a home in Eden Prairie is higher than $500,000, more homeowners are taxed at the higher tier.
Monthly property taxes on a median-valued home would rise to $155 in 2026, an increase of about $12 from 2024.
The 2026 budget is particularly focused on public safety, Getschow said. If public safety funding were removed from the 2026 budget, it would increase by only 2%.
The budget itself increased by 6.5%, $4 million, to a total of $66.8 million, Wilson said. Some notable increases within the budget include administration, the police department and the fire department.
The administration budget was raised to $5.6 million, adding $339,000 to fund local elections in 2026, Wilson said. Of that increase, $176,000 will go toward the 2026 elections.
This part of the budget will decrease again in 2027 because there will be no elections that year, Wilson said.
The police department’s budget increased by $2.3 million to $22.8 million, most of which is attributed to wage increases and benefits, Wilson said. The budget also increased to accommodate for the department’s expansion and an additional social worker the department received through a contract with Hennepin County.
Increases to the fire department’s budget cover wage and benefit increases for current staff as well as funding additional staff as the department works to expand, Wilson said.
The fire department also received a $2 million federal SAFER grant — which helps cities hire and retain firefighters — to support its staffing expansion. The police department expansion is being paid for mostly with bonded funds.
Getschow noted efforts the city made to save money throughout the year, including reallocating positions at city hall. He said officials also reviewed the budget line by line to decide what to add or cut.
“We don’t necessarily say, in a certain area or certain division of the city, ‘let’s just raise that 2% or 3%,’” Getschow said. “We will look at almost every single line item.”
Getschow said the city would not have a capital improvement levy because, over the last several years, the city’s revenues exceeded expenditures, allowing extra funds to be transferred into the Capital Improvement Fund.
Property taxes continue to rise for homeowners in Eden Prairie and across the metro area, largely because commercial real estate values continue to fall, Getschow said. Commercial real estate values dropped 6% this year, while residential values rose.
Getschow added that among surrounding cities of similar size, Eden Prairie’s tax levy remains the lowest. The average levy increase among peer cities was 8%. Edina and Bloomington’s levies are 9.23% and 9.44%, respectively, and Minnetonka’s is 7.94%.
Mayor Ron Case noted that reducing the levy to 0% would save the median homeowner only about $7. However, eliminating the levy entirely would cut $2.5 million from the budget and would likely mean reducing police and fire staffing.
Four residents spoke at the meeting, all emphasizing that many households are feeling financial strain and that tax increases make it harder to make ends meet.
One audience member, David Ringsmith, thanked the council for its work but underscored the broader economic pressure.
“I thank you for what you’re doing,” Ringsmith said. “It still hurts with all the taxes that are going up in the state, in the county — there’s a lot of pain, and I think that’s what you’re seeing here tonight with the people.”
Other speakers described their own financial hardships, including Eden Prairie resident Julie Baker.
“For the last three months, I’ve been living paycheck to paycheck,” Baker said. “I cut everywhere I can, and there’s not a lot more I can do to cut.”
Baker and others urged the city to explore more cost-saving measures, such as hiring fewer firefighters during the department’s expansion or scaling back the scope of the police department renovation.
All five council members acknowledged the financial strain residents are facing and said higher taxes could add to that burden. Several noted that reviewing their own rising bills was difficult.
Council member Lisa Toomey said she and the rest of the council struggled with the budget but noted that some of this year’s changes will ultimately save the city and its residents money in the long run.
When the police department first moved into its current space, it had only 35 officers, Toomey said. Now it has 73, and the department is struggling to find room for all of them.
“We are probably one of the only police departments in the entire state that doesn’t have indoor parking,” Toomey said. “So in the long run, we will save money on vehicles and things like that during the winter months that will not need as much care.”
Council member Mark Freiberg said the council spends considerable time weighing which services are most essential when building the budget.
“We ask ourselves a lot of questions — I want to assure you that we all do — because we take what we’re doing very seriously,” Freiberg said. “We’re all feeling it there. And you have our commitment.”
