Cloquet city councilors approved the city’s preliminary budget and property tax levy for 2021 on Tuesday night, setting the maximum levy increase at 4 percent, for a total levy of $3,164,750.

The council can choose to levy for less than that amount in December, but they cannot increase the levy.

Property owners will probably not see an equivalent increase to their Cloquet property taxes, however, because the city has had a 5.12 percent increase in taxable market value, as new homes and commercial buildings have added to the tax rolls. So the impact on individual homes and businesses of th...