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Chisago County’s  annual permit to carry a concealed firearm report shows the program is in the red for the years 2023, 2024 and 2025 to the tune of about $108,000. But, county permit revenues were quite robust a few years prior,  building about a $150,000 balance in the account. So, overall the conceal-carry permits are avoiding a deficit balance;  but Sheriff Brandon Thyen says he is monitoring the budget and keeping a close eye on this county mandate.  The county processes conceal-carry permits under state law.

“It is hard to try and forecast what’s going to come in,” the sheriff explained, talking about the public service balancing act.  

The conceal-carry permits are good for five years.  Some years— like 2021 and 2022— were very active and revenues justified adding a part time permit clerk.  After a couple slow years since,  Thyen said the position was recently  eliminated and he is evaluating the impact on the sheriff’s budget.  There could be another burst of permit fees when renewals come in this year and next related to the bubble five years ago.  For now the balance is “doing okay.”

Permit fees also were adjusted downward when the revenues appeared to be climbing, to avoid having an account with a huge balance.  The state legislature allows for counties to collect up to $100 for new permits (renewals and expired late applications are different amounts.). Chisago County decreased the fee here to $50. Sheriff Thyen said he has “no plans” to adjust it back up.

According to the state, Chisago County has issued 7,129 valid permits— as of December 2025.  

A little over 200 are “pending” as of the end of 2025 and one applicant was denied in 2025. There were 737 new concealed carry permits and 842 renewed their permits last year.

Of 80 counties that submitted their reports for 2025, there is a deficit of $710,788 in total.  The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was set up to receive permit reports starting in 2004 (chapter 624 under state statutes.)

The BCA pointed out in a recent press release that “...behind every statistic in the report is a person, an applicant, a sheriff’s office staff member, reviewing paperwork or an analyst compiling data that helps inform the public.”

This data does not include names but does breakdown permits in categories for age groups, male and female and zip code.  This is not a permit to purchase data,  but permits to carry only.

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