On April 20, 2026, City Council members Peterson, Whitlock, and mayor Carlson, voted a second time to approve a new $27 million public works facility. With interest rates on the bonds issued factored in, the cost of this project alone to the taxpayers will be an estimated $44 million over the next 25 years in increased property taxes.

Your individual increase can be found on the above table. The increase is based on the value of your property. If you are a renter, your landlord will likely be passing that additional tax along to you in the form of a rent increase. The table above is from the city council meeting packet for Dec. 15, 2025.

On May 18 the council voted to add an additional $934,000 in bonding to provide road and utility access to the new public works site that was not included in the original $27 million bonding, making a new total of $27,934,000.

On this overall project budget you will see that the police dog impound and the cold storage building, estimated at $4,9802,000, are NOT included in the $27,934,000 cost but will have to be added to the property tax burden in the future.

Nobody’s arguing that a new public works building isn’t needed. We object to the process in which this was determined as the best option to upgrade moving forward. Does it really require all the amenities, including several meeting rooms and a so-called “fitness room?” Maybe. But we believe the city should have persisted in exploring more affordable options for the taxpayers. Negotiating further with reluctant private parties on other, existing sites would surely not have resulted in this much weight on the North Mankato taxpayers.

And given the cost, it should have been put to a vote by those who have to pay for it. You know—we the people.