We are at a critical decision point in our city’s history.

On the one hand, we have serious needs. A third of our roads are expected to fail in the next 20 years, a growing number of people are experiencing homelessness, including 2,000 Saint Paul Public School students last year, and hundreds of families are unable to find affordable child care and early childhood education. These challenges are holding us back as a community and preventing us from being the economic engine we should be.

On the other hand, we have immense opportunity. As our capital city, St. Paul can and should lead the way on ambitious, transformative civic initiatives. We can drive economic growth throughout the region by creating bikeable and walkable streets and building hundreds of units of affordable housing to ensure that all people who want to work in St. Paul can afford to live here.

We can also spur economic growth by funding early childhood education. The evidence is clear: with a return of $16 per dollar spent, investing in our kids is the single best economic development decision we can make. If we invest in the critical early years, we reap the benefits later in reduced spending on special education and criminal justice and increased lifetime earnings for our kids. Ensuring equitable access to high-quality early learning for all St. Paul kids would also help close Minnesota’s worst-in-the-nation achievement gap.

So how do we address these needs and seize these opportunities?

Not with business as usual. Raising property taxes year after year, trimming the budget where we can, hoping for an increase in state aid, and patching our potholes is not working. Property taxes, particularly in the neighborhoods we represent, have reached unsustainable levels, and it’s unfair to keep increasing the burden on property owners and small businesses.

As part of the solution, we need to insist on greater efficiency in spending, look for ways to responsibly cut our budget and hold ourselves accountable for making the best use of every dollar. But with our needs increasing every year and state and federal aid failing to keep pace, we simply cannot cut our way out of our problems without undermining the services our community deserves.

There’s a different way forward, and it’s one we urgently want to explore. A sales tax of one penny for every dollar spent would generate $36 million each year – enough to meet our critical needs for better streets, housing for all, and affordable early childhood education.

Unlike property taxes, sales taxes provide a way for the millions of people who visit St. Paul every year to help support the infrastructure and amenities they enjoy. And they may only be used for activities approved by state legislation.

Sales taxes are becoming a necessity for municipalities across the state, with a record high of 19 cities getting sales tax approval in 2019 and 18 more cities seeking approval this year.

It is clear the city cannot act alone when businesses bear the responsibility for collecting the sales tax, and we are eager to work collaboratively with St. Paul businesses to undertake this initiative. It is our belief that targeted investments in our roads, in housing for working families, and in affordable child care will dramatically improve our city’s business climate by attracting and retaining new residents, businesses and visitors.

This is a big idea, and it’s one we want to explore in partnership with you – our residents, our business community, our neighborhood and civic organizations. To take effect, a new sales tax must be approved by the Legislature and then by St. Paul voters in a referendum; we cannot proceed without public support. This past week, we approved a resolution to begin exploring this option, and we’re eager to hear your thoughts.

If you’ve gritted your teeth as you’ve bumped over potholes, if you worry about rising rents or have no place to call home, if your family is struggling to find or pay for child care – we hope you’ll join us in considering whether, when it comes to our most pressing problems, putting our pennies together makes sense.

The authors are members of the St. Paul City Council.