Candidates for St. Paul mayor make their pitches to public at forum
With less than a month until Election Day, St. Paul voters are hearing from the candidates looking to lead Minnesota's capital city.
The candidates shared the stage for the first time Monday night, talking about everything from taxes to city services and hearing from voters in the process.
Incumbent Mayor Melvin Carter is vying for a third consecutive term. He's facing four challengers on the 2025 ballot: biophysicist Yan Chen, state Rep. Kaohly Her, engineer Adam Dullinger and Mike Hillborn, an entrepreneur and 40-plus-year resident of St. Paul.
One issue at top of mind for voters: high property taxes. Here's what each candidate had to say about it.
"What are the things that we are spending money on that are hidden, that we don't know?" Hilborn said. "We're the highest property tax, highest sales tax in Minnesota. That means there is room to cut."
"We have to start looking at new revenue sources. We can't keep relying on the backs of our residents in order to generate the funds and to run our city's operations," Her said.
"There's just so many things that you can do to cut those costs. You don't need custom-formed concrete and all these fancy things," Dullinger said. "If we are trying to really keep up with our budget, we need to not overspend on those kinds of things."
"I definitely don't agree with cutting bike lanes. Bike lanes make life more affordable for folks. I definitely don't agree with cutting our libraries. Libraries are something that enable people to participate in this economy," Carter said. "But there are things that we can do. We can diversify our revenues."
"The major change would be public works, right? Because that's big department spending — $200 million we go into Public Works Department," Chen said.
A reminder: the mayoral race is ranked choice, meaning voters can rank their candidates in order of preference.
Election day is Nov. 4.
Voters will get another chance to meet the candidates Tuesday from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Wilder Foundation. The event is free and open to the public.
