City of Bemidji Hopes to Find Creative Solutions for 2026 Budget

The June 21st storm that swept through the Bemidji area has and continues to have lasting impacts on the community. Our reporter Matthew Freeman tells us how the storm will even affect 2026 as well. This year brought some unique, unforeseen, but very real budget problems for the city of Bemidji.

“This is a less than typical, situation this year than we’ve had in the past.” says Rich Spiczka, Bemidji City Manager.

Bemidji City Council members shared some of their perspectives to hopefully leave the meeting with a better understanding to set a framework for the city’s final levy for 2026.

“We have to start somewhere,” says Audrey Thayer, Bemidji Councilor At-Large. “I’m not okay with a 10% increase. I remember we went round that last year at 7.5%. Lets set a high number up there for us, and then we can start working from there.”

The biggest concern for the council was replenishing the city’s reserve funds. Several options were discussed, including using previously generated revenue from the Municipal Liquor Store, as well as future land sales to help replenish the reserves.

“When I start thinking about filling back the reserve, I would like to see the least amount of that fall on the levy and the majority of that fall on these perhaps more creative solutions, so that they don’t impact citizens out of the gate.” says Jorge Prince, Bemidji Mayor

Possible benefits to a city-owned fueling station were even discussed, after many residents utilized Beltrami County’s self-sufficient station during the June 21st storm.

“We think there’s some potential cost there, not only convenience, but cost and what we pay for fuel per gallon, to have it on site because we could buy in bulk.” adds Spiczka. “And then the other piece I would say is, in the event, hopefully we don’t have to worry about it, but if another storm comes, we feel pretty secure with our own fuel, with some power source and that sort of thing.”

It terms of the preliminary levy, the council seemed split on where to set it. Some wanted to keep the levy a little higher and work their way down, while others wanted to keep the levy increase as little as possible.

“I’m still fearful” says Josh Peterson, Bemidji Ward 2 Councilor. “We don’t know what insurance rates are going to become next year. We got hit with a major storm. Everyone’s insurance rates are going to skyrocket and that gets added on to people’s home payments, the rent, everything. So for me, I would rather keep the levy as low as possible, because we don’t know what the impact of the insurance adjustments is going to be on everyone next year.”

As this is a work session, no action was taken during this meeting. The City is required to set their preliminary levy for 2026 by September 30th, but could potentially bring the decision as early as their September 15th regular council meeting.