"Given its immense size and value, Xcel pays the greatest share of the property taxes in town."
That line comes straight from the City of Monticello's own government blog, buried in a post explaining how the annual budget gets built. It isn't a marketing line. No real estate listing will ever print it. But if you've been comparing Monticello to St. Michael, Buffalo, or another Wright County suburb and wondering why the tax picture here tends to look a little friendlier, that sentence is the whole answer.
Monticello's property tax base isn't shaped like most cities its size. It's shaped like a city with one enormous industrial neighbor, and 2026 is the year that neighbor's math started moving in a new direction.
The Plant Is the Largest Taxpayer in Town, and It Isn't Close
The Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant sits along the Mississippi River, inside city limits, and has been running since 1971. It employs roughly 470 workers according to reporting from the Monticello Times, and the city's own site describes it as one of the largest employers in town, with around 640 people tied to the plant's operations when contractors are included. Either way, it's the single biggest payroll and the single biggest property tax bill in Monticello.
That second part matters more for home shoppers than the first. As of the most recent breakdown reported by the Monticello Times, Xcel's property accounted for about 37 percent of the city's total tax burden in 2025. One taxpayer, carrying more than a third of the load that would otherwise fall across every home, apartment, and storefront in town.
This isn't a temporary arrangement waiting to expire. In late December 2024, federal regulators approved a 20-year license renewal that clears the plant to keep operating through 2050, a decision confirmed by World Nuclear News and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Whatever else changes, the physical plant isn't going anywhere for decades. What can change, and just did, is how much of the tax bill it's asked to carry relative to everyone else.
The Shift That Just Happened for 2026
Every December, Monticello's city council certifies a final levy for the coming year. For taxes payable in 2026, the city and its Housing and Redevelopment Authority levy rose a combined 7.0 percent, with the General Fund portion, which pays for police contracts, snow removal, and day-to-day operations, increasing 5.0 percent.
Here's the part that doesn't show up on a listing page. The city's own December 15, 2025 press release states that the nuclear plant's assessed valuation increased 10.2 percent for the 2026 tax year, a bigger jump than residential, commercial, or apartment property saw. Because that increase outpaced the other property classes, the city says more of the overall tax impact shifted onto Xcel. It's described in the release as the first shift of tax burden onto public utility property in five years.
For half a decade, the drift had been running the other direction, toward homes and businesses. This year it reversed, at least for one budget cycle. That's the mechanism worth understanding if you're weighing Monticello's affordability against a neighboring suburb: the "low tax" feeling isn't a fixed policy choice by the city council. It's a byproduct of how one industrial property's value moves relative to every other property class, year over year, and that relationship can bend in either direction depending on what happens to a single facility on the riverbank.
A State Bill Most Homebuyers Will Never Hear About
While the city was finalizing its 2026 levy, a separate conversation was unfolding at the state capitol. In mid-March 2026, a bill was introduced in the Minnesota House, HF 4308, that would terminate certain annual payments tied to the Monticello nuclear plant under state renewable energy statute, among several other energy policy changes. It was read for the first time and referred to the Committee on Energy Finance and Policy, and the most recent public status available shows it still sitting there.
It's worth being precise about what this bill touches. Those payments flow through a state renewable development account, not through the local property tax levy that funds Monticello's city budget. A change here wouldn't directly rewrite the city's tax rolls. But it's a useful signal of just how much financial machinery has been built around this one facility, and how many different levers, state and local, can move independently of each other.
That attention isn't limited to one bill. Minnesota lawmakers separately directed the Public Utilities Commission to fund a study, reported by the Monticello Times in June 2026, examining the potential for new nuclear generation in the state, including its effects on local tax revenue and employment. Monticello, described in that reporting as having hosted a nuclear plant for more than five decades, is effectively the case study the rest of the state is watching.
Data Centers Could Add a Second Anchor Tenant
There's another development worth flagging for anyone thinking years ahead rather than months. Monticello's city website currently maintains a dedicated page for data center inquiries and notes that private developers have shown interest in building in the city. Nothing here is confirmed or built, but it points to a possible second large industrial taxpayer entering the picture over time.
If that happens, it could compound the same dynamic already at work with the nuclear plant: more of the tax base concentrated in a small number of high-value commercial properties, potentially easing pressure on residential rates further. It could also cut the other way, since new large-scale development tends to bring its own service demands that show up in future levies. Either way, it's one more reason Monticello's tax picture five years from now may look different from what it looks like today, and a reminder that the number on a current listing reflects a snapshot, not a guarantee.
What This Means If You're Comparing Monticello to a Neighboring Suburb
None of this means Monticello is a risky place to buy or that its taxes are about to spike. Over the three months ending May 2026, the city's median home sale price sat at $325,000, still generally in line with, or below, what buyers find in several surrounding Wright County communities. The point is narrower: the affordability edge people notice here has a specific, identifiable source, and that source is subject to forces well outside a homeowner's control or a real estate agent's forecast.
A few things are worth doing if this factors into your decision:
Review the Truth-in-Taxation notice mailed by Wright County each November, which breaks out exactly how much of a specific property's tax bill goes to the city, the county, and the school district, and shows the taxable market value the calculation is based on.
Ask what share of the current levy is funding one-time capital projects versus ongoing operations. Monticello's 2026 budget, for example, allocates levy dollars toward finishing the city's Water Treatment Plant, a new Public Works Facility, downtown parking construction, and pickleball courts at Bertram Chain of Lakes Regional Athletic Park. Capital spending tied to specific projects behaves differently over time than a permanent increase in operating costs.
Keep half an eye on state legislative activity around nuclear energy policy in Minnesota this year. Nothing currently pending would restructure the city's own levy, but the volume of attention this single facility is drawing at the capitol is itself informative about how much sits on one asset.
A Few Questions Worth Asking Before You Assume the Tax Picture Stays the Same
Will my Monticello property tax bill go up because of this? It depends on how your specific home's assessed value moves relative to the total tax base each year, not on this article alone. The Truth-in-Taxation notice mailed every November is the most reliable place to see the actual number for a specific property.
Is the nuclear plant closing anytime soon? No. Federal regulators extended its operating license through 2050 in a decision finalized in late 2024, so the facility itself isn't the source of near-term uncertainty. The uncertainty sits in how its value and payment obligations are calculated year to year.
Does the pending state bill affect my property tax bill directly? Not directly. HF 4308 concerns a separate state-level payment stream tied to renewable energy statute, not the local levy that funds Monticello's city budget. It's more useful as a sign of how much legislative attention this one facility draws than as something that will show up on a Wright County tax statement anytime soon.
Monticello's tax story is a good example of why a median price or a tax rate on its own doesn't tell you much. The number is real, but the reason behind it is local, specific, and worth understanding before you assume it will look the same in five years. If you're weighing Monticello against another Wright County community and want help reading the fuller picture, including how a specific property's taxes have moved over time, Stephanie Houghton can walk through it with you. Let's Connect.
