The St. Paul City Council unanimously approved St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter’s 2019 budget proposal Wednesday — a week after the mayor agreed to trim the tax levy increase by a percentage point and fill nine police officer jobs to compensate for promotions to investigative positions.

Next year’s $156 million tax levy is $14.7 million higher than that of the present year, for a 10.46 percent increase.

“We’re really investing in St. Paul here,” said City Council President Amy Brendmoen. “We did hear that (a tax levy increase of) 11.5 percent was tough for folks, and did our best to whittle it down.”

At a public hearing last week, the city council heard an earful from social justice advocates opposed to adding nine new officers.

On Wednesday, council members said they were sensitive to concerns around police-community relations, but they also are alarmed by growing 911 response times, heavy backlogs in sex crime investigations, general population growth and a foreseeable uptick in activity in areas such as Allianz Field, the future Major League Soccer stadium.

“Right now our sex crime investigators have an average, each year, of 249 sex crimes to investigate,” said Council Member Rebecca Noecker. “I think that’s unacceptable. …We are growing. We are attracting more people. We are attracting more residents. …This budget really does reflect our values.”

The budget anticipates $71 million in spending on affordable housing initiatives over the next three years, including the creation of a $10 million affordable housing fund.

It expands rec center hours, dedicates $500,000 to a recreational campus along Rice Street, sets aside another $500,000 for bikeways, funds a full-time attorney in the city attorney’s office to support immigration services, and devotes $925,000 to two business initiatives.

“I’m always against a huge tax increase, but this is one I can take back to my constituents with confidence,” said Council Member Dai Thao.

Here are five things you should know about the St. Paul budget and tax levy:

LIBRARY FINES

If you’re one of one the 51,000 patrons blocked from borrowing materials from the St. Paul Public Library system because of unpaid late fines, you’re in luck. With encouragement from the mayor’s office, the Library Board wrote off $2.5 million in uncollected debt from late returners. Late fines will now be a thing of the past. Books and other materials that are lost or stolen will still require repayment.

POLICE HIRING

The St. Paul Police Department will promote nine officers to shore up a mental health unit, sex crime investigations, a downtown command and more. Rather than taking officers off the streets, the seven new investigators and two commanders will be backfilled with nine new hires.

FINANCIAL EMPOWERMENT OFFICE

Since taking office, Carter has called for every student to have a college savings account. Staffing for a new Office of Financial Empowerment will work to see that project through, and team with nonprofits teaching credit repair and financial literacy.

PUBLIC WORKS

Over the next three years, St. Paul Public Works Director Kathy Lantry hopes to shave off the top of almost every downtown street that isn’t already scheduled for reconstruction and replace it through a process called mill and overlay. Spending on mill and overlay work elsewhere in the city will double, spending on sidewalk replacements triple, and a proposed study examines the possibility of plowing alleys after heavy snows.

OVERALL TAX IMPACT

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St. Paul schools superintendent gets high marks, but board wants progress on equity, enrollment, student achievement The new tax levy — the total amount of taxes collected from property owners — will be 10.5 percent higher than in 2018. That’s faster than inflation, but roughly in keeping with the growth in the city’s tax base, or the total value of all taxable properties. As a result of the $156 million tax levy, a median-value home in St. Paul would see the city portion of property taxes increase about $67 next year.

At a time of rising property values, overall tax impacts will vary widely by neighborhood and property type. Ramsey County approved a 4.3 percent tax levy increase this week, and St. Paul schools will get a 15 percent hike, largely driven by an operating levy increase that voters approved in November.

RELATED: Here’s why your 2019 property tax bill is so high