Vote Laura Helle

09/22/2026

Last night the City Council voted on a 2027 levy at $11,325,125. This graphic shows the estimated impact on home owners based on the assessed value of the home. This is an estimate only, consult your tax statement. This is for City taxes only, not county or school district.

09/22/2026

The City Council adopted a tax levy for 2027 yesterday. The levy could be cut, but it cannot go higher than $11,325,125. For business owners, here is the estimated tax impact. Of course, many thing affect your tax statement including assessments and this information only takes into account City taxes - not county or school district.
Edited: I had a numeral 4 where is should have been a $ on the amount of the levy. I regret the error.

09/18/2026

Over the last 10 years, the City of Austin's expenditures have gone up 23%. Just from inflation, you would expect them to go up 36%. While expenditures are growing slower than inflation, Local Government Aid has been growing more slowly than inflation leaving a big hole in the budget.
The property tax levy has grown 83% to fill that hole. Austin leaders have been advocating for more LGA at the state legislature with no luck.
Property tax payers are tapped out. Let's start talking about other revenue sources for the city.
In my research on what other cities are doing, there are few options. Some cities increase fees and permits for things like building, signs, parks facilities--even fees for police and fire calls.
What would you do?

09/16/2026

This fall the City of Austin is implementing electronic purchasing processes. Up until this point, they’d been using paper. I’m excited that the city is on the road to reducing labor (and labor costs) by using technology for the things that technology does best. We can do more and we should do more to keep property taxes low.

09/15/2026

Make a plan and vote!

09/15/2026

One idea for reducing Austin property tax: a municipal ma*****na dispensary could bring $100,000 or more in revenue to the city. Funds could be used for city operations that would reduce what has to be collected in property taxes. It might not be right for Austin, but we should have a community conversation about it. Anoka is doing it.

09/14/2026

I’m excited to bring my experience to city council at a time when new leaders are coming on board as police chief, fire chief, and city administrator. Let’s get to work!

09/13/2026

I’m proud of this incredible project by the Parks Department under the leadership of Jason Sehon and Lynn Thompson. Great work! Keep it up!

Update on hanging flower baskets and downtown flowerpots:

This has been a great year for hanging flower baskets! We celebrated America’s 250th Anniversary by plating red, white and blue flowers, and we think they turned out great.

Usually, by this time of year, the flowers start losing their color, and we have typically already started removing the baskets. This year, however, most of the flower baskets are still vibrant and look great, so we have not removed any yet!

We attribute much of this success to the upgrades our Parks staff made to the flower-watering carts. The new system allows us to water the baskets more thoroughly at each visit. In addition to improving the appearance and health of the flowers, these upgrades have also resulted in several significant benefits:

• More thorough watering: The new system provides more complete and consistent watering of the flower baskets.
• Approximately 50% reduction in labor costs: We significantly reduced the amount of staff time needed to water the flowers this year. Historically, we would water twice per day when temperatures exceeded 80 degrees or when high winds were present. This year, we did not need to water twice per day. Using less water also means fewer trips to refill the watering carts, further reducing staff time.
• Approximately 40% reduction in water and fertilizer use: The improved watering system allows us to use significantly less water and fertilizer while maintaining healthy, vibrant flowers.
• More than 80% reduction in water and fertilizer runoff: The new watering carts include a capture system that greatly reduces runoff. This helps prevent fertilizer from entering the storm drain and ultimately our local waterways.
• Improved employee safety: The improvements also included safety upgrades that eliminate the need for staff to climb steps while watering the flowers.

We plan to continue watering throughout next week, and staff will begin removing the hanging flower baskets later during the week of September 21. The flowers in the downtown planter pots will remain in place until the end of September, when they will be removed in preparation for the fall planter decorations that take place downtown each year.

We would like to thank everyone who generously supports the hanging flower basket program each year. Your donations make a meaningful difference and help us continue to beautify downtown Austin. We truly appreciate the continued support and community pride that help make our downtown look so welcoming.

We would also like to thank Parks staff, the Parks, Recreation & Forestry Board and the Austin City Council for their support in making these improvements to our flower-watering carts. These upgrades have allowed us to maintain beautiful downtown flowers while reducing labor, water and fertilizer use, improving employee safety, and reducing our environmental impact.

09/08/2026

I appreciate this video for clarifying how property taxes are assessed. Feel free to share.

Property taxes are based on your home’s value. What you might not k...

09/07/2026

A city's tax rate is calculated by taking the amount of the tax levy and dividing it by the Taxable Net Capacity of all properties in the city. It's a way to compare the taxes collected at cities of different sizes. Austin's tax rate in 2025 was 50.54%, very comparable with peer cities in SE MN.