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By now, property owners should have received a copy of their proposed taxes for 2025.

The form shows a breakdown of what taxes would be under the preliminary levies of Freeborn County, the city of Albert Lea, the Albert Lea school district, the Shell Rock River Watershed District and the Albert Lea Housing and Redevelopment Authority.

For Freeborn County, the preliminary levy increase for 2025 is 8.9%, while for the city of Albert Lea it is 15.8%, a large part of which is attributed to the passage of the city’s facilities referendum earlier this year.

The Albert Lea school district’s preliminary levy was a 2.4% decrease from the previous year and was approved Monday night by the school board.

The remaining entities will approve their final levies before the end of the year.

We encourage residents who have questions or concerns about what was proposed to attend the truth-in-taxation meetings for each level of local government, where both the budgets and levies will be discussed. While these should be some of the most well attended meetings of the year, it is not uncommon to only have a few people in attendance or none at all at these meetings.

The Freeborn County Board of Commissioners will have its truth-in-taxation meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Freeborn County courthouse, and the city of Albert Lea will have its meeting at 7 p.m. Monday at Albert Lea City Hall.

Learn more about the issues facing the city and county and how their budgets and levies were formed.