Local taxes › Black Hawk County › Waterloo

City

Waterloo

$3,860 a yearproperty tax on a $200,000 home here, FY27, for every local government ($45.83 per $1,000 of taxable value)¹

$1,830 a yearof that goes to the city ($21.77 per $1,000)

$53.0Mproperty taxes the city levies, FY27

$255.7Mcity budget, FY27, without city-run utilities (not yet reported)²

Who runs it

The city council passes ordinances, adopts the budget and sets the city’s property tax.

Deborah BerryWaterloo City Council Ward 3 · elected November 4, 2025
Hector A. Salamanca-ArroyoWaterloo City Council Ward 5 · elected November 4, 2025
Kelly MartinWaterloo City Council At-Large · elected November 4, 2025
Quentin HartWaterloo Mayor · elected November 4, 2025
Steve SchmittWaterloo City Council Ward 1 · elected November 4, 2025
Belinda Creighton-SmithWaterloo City Council Ward 4 · elected November 7, 2023
Dave BoesenWaterloo City Council Ward 2 · elected November 7, 2023
Steve SimonWaterloo City Council At-Large · elected November 7, 2023

Officials are worked out from election results: every member whose four-year term is still running, plus appointments and titles Iowa Funnel has been told about. A resignation may not show yet.

Meetings and agendas

What the council is deciding: each agenda, the resolutions and ordinances on it, and a plain-language summary.

Agendas will appear here as they’re posted. Every council and board posts its agenda at least 24 hours before it meets.

Property taxes

How the bill is collected · What each levy is for

Who gets a property owner’s tax bill in Waterloo

Homes and businesses in most of Waterloo pay a combined $45.83 per $1,000 of taxable value (FY27). They pay it all to the Black Hawk County treasurer, who passes each government its share; the city sets and gets only its own piece, $21.77. Estimate your bill.

City of Waterloo$21.7748%
Waterloo schools$16.7537%
Black Hawk County$5.5712%
Hawkeye Community College$1.363%
Black Hawk County Assessor$0.27<1%
Black Hawk County Extension (ISU Extension and Outreach)$0.11<1%

Rates over time

Per $1,000 of taxable value: the typical combined rate people in Waterloo pay, and the city government’s own piece of it.

Year	Combined	City’s own
FY20	$39.49	$17.55
FY21	$40.46	$18.44
FY22	$40.15	$18.63
FY23	$39.50	$18.97
FY24	$40.19	$19.73
FY25	$43.13	$22.07
FY26	$45.74	$21.79
FY27	$45.83	$21.77

Show the numbers

Year	Combined	City’s own
FY20	$39.49	$17.55
FY21	$40.46	$18.44
FY22	$40.15	$18.63
FY23	$39.50	$18.97
FY24	$40.19	$19.73
FY25	$43.13	$22.07
FY26	$45.74	$21.79
FY27	$45.83	$21.77

Compared with places this size³

Waterloo’s city property tax rate of $21.77 per $1,000 is the 1st highest of 10 Iowa cities with 48,000–101,000 people. The middle of the group is $13.12.

See all 10

#	Place	Rate per $1,000	People
1	Waterloo	$21.77	67,477
2	Council Bluffs	$17.48	62,665
3	Davenport	$16.58	100,938
4	Sioux City	$15.51	86,875
5	Iowa City	$15.43	76,710
6	West Des Moines	$10.80	73,664
7	Ames	$10.27	69,026
8	Dubuque	$10.06	58,987
9	Urbandale	$9.98	47,759
10	Ankeny	$9.90	76,727

The $8.10 limit

Waterloo’s general levy is $8.91 per $1,000 of taxable value in FY27, $0.81 above the limit; it has to come down in steps.⁴ 2 of 934 Iowa cities have a higher general levy. All cities.

$8.10

FY23 $8.10 · FY24 $8.10 · FY25 $8.91 · FY26 $8.91 · FY27 $8.91 (before FY25, the general levy alone)

Outside the limit: $12.86 more⁵

Total Employee Benefit Levies$7.18 · $16.6M
Debt Service Levy$3.75 · $11.4M
Liability, property & self insurance costs$1.23 · $2.8M
Opr & Maint publicly owned Transit$0.66 · $1.5M
Support of a Local Emerg. Mgmt. Comm.$0.04 · $93,915

Tax increment financing (TIF)

$723.0M of taxable value in Waterloo is in TIF districts’ increment (24% of the city’s taxable value), 2025 valuations, taxed in FY27.⁶ It budgeted $21.1M in TIF revenue for FY25.

$11.2M

Year	TIF revenue
FY16	$7.2M
FY17	$7.9M
FY18	$7.6M
FY19	$8.9M
FY20	$8.2M
FY21	$10.1M
FY22	$10.6M
FY23	$11.2M

Show the numbers

Year	TIF revenue
FY16	$7.2M
FY17	$7.9M
FY18	$7.6M
FY19	$8.9M
FY20	$8.2M
FY21	$10.1M
FY22	$10.6M
FY23	$11.2M

The city’s levies, FY27

What the city raises from each levy. The general levy is capped by state law; the others are set aside for one purpose.

Consolidate General Fund$20.5M39%
Total Employee Benefit Levies$16.6M31%
Debt Service Levy$11.4M21%
Liability, property & self insurance costs$2.8M5%
Opr & Maint publicly owned Transit$1.5M3%
Support of a Local Emerg. Mgmt. Comm.$93,9150%

Budget and spending

Reading a local budget

Where each dollar of Waterloo’s budget goes, FY26

Planned spending from all funds, including city-run utilities like water and sewer (“business type”), which some cities run and others don’t. Transfers between funds are left out. “Cities this size” is the average for the 9 Iowa cities closest in size (48,000–101,000 people).

Where it goes	Of each dollar	Cities this size (9)
Capital Projects	32¢	17¢
Public Safety	16¢	16¢
Public Works	14¢	6¢
Business Type / Enterprise	13¢	37¢
Community and Economic Development	9¢	5¢
Everything else	16¢	20¢

Planned spending, FY27

All funds: property taxes, utility and other fees, state and federal money. “Business type” is city-run utilities and enterprises like water or sewer.

Capital Projects$69.0M27%
Public Safety$46.5M18%
Public Works$44.0M17%
Debt Service$39.8M16%
Community and Economic Development$28.1M11%
Culture and Recreation$14.1M6%
General Government$13.7M5%
Health and Social Services$399,5440%

The state’s FY27 file doesn’t include business type / enterprise yet ($36.9M in FY26), so this total is low.

Budget compared with what it spent, FY23

Function	Budget	Spent
Public Works	$31.8M	$25.2M
Public Safety	$40.9M	$40.6M
Health and Social Services	$354,210	$349,862
General Government	$10.8M	$9.9M
Debt Service	$14.7M	$14.7M
Culture and Recreation	$12.9M	$11.9M
Community and Economic Development	$19.6M	$18.4M
Capital Projects	$42.7M	$27.1M
Business Type / Enterprise	$39.5M	$29.4M

What it spent each year

FY24 left out⁷

$307.2M

State money

What the State of Iowa pays the city each year, and whether it has kept up with prices. Does state money keep pace? ⁸

What the state pays the city every year

Road Use Tax for streets, the commercial and industrial tax “backfill”, and ambulance reimbursement, paid every year by formula: $12.3M in FY25, up 15% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 9% less. Grants are below.

Show the numbers

Source	FY22	FY23	FY24	FY25
Road Use Tax (streets)	$9.3M	$9.3M	$9.5M	$9.6M
Commercial and industrial tax replacement (“backfill”)	$1.7M	$1.5M	$2.7M	$2.7M

Grants and project money

State grants and money for specific projects (roads, development, natural resources) vary with what the city applies for and wins, so they aren’t counted as the state’s regular support.

$6.2M

Iowa DOT projects$5.1M82%
State grants$945,51415%
STATE SHARE-BEER/LIQUOR$91,3531%
Iowa Economic Development Authority$47,4701%

Year	Grants and projects
FY19	$5.8M
FY20	$822,953
FY21	$2.0M
FY22	$1.8M
FY23	$4.3M
FY24	$6.1M
FY25	$6.2M

Show the numbers

Year	Grants and projects
FY19	$5.8M
FY20	$822,953
FY21	$2.0M
FY22	$1.8M
FY23	$4.3M
FY24	$6.1M
FY25	$6.2M

Has it kept up with prices?

Each source from FY19 to FY25, after inflation.

Road Use Tax (streets)−14%$8.8M → $9.6M, up 8% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 14% less
Commercial and industrial tax replacement (“backfill”)+16%$1.9M → $2.7M, up 46% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 16% more

Collected by the state for the city

The local option sales tax is a city tax voters approved; the state collects it with the state sales tax and sends it back. It isn’t state aid. It’s up 30% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 3% more.

$14.1M

$13.4M

Federal grants, for comparison: $18.9M in FY25.

Elections

Most recent: February 24, 2026

City · 1

Waterloo City Council Ward 2 Special · special election

Dave Morrow 48551.0%
Ali Parrish 36037.9%
Frank Magsamen 10511.1%

Local races from civicAPI and county auditors for Waterloo; official results are on each county auditor’s site.

Related places

At the Statehouse and in Congress⁹

William A. Dotzler Jr. (Sen. 31)Jerome Amos Jr. (Rep. 62, 80%)Timi M. Brown-Powers (Rep. 61, 18%)

U.S. House:District 2

Black Hawk County Cedar Falls schools Hudson schools Waterloo schools

Notes

For a $200,000 home with the homestead credit, at the combined rate in most of the city. Some parts of the city pay a different rate (special districts, tax increment financing districts). ↩
Cities adopt their budgets each spring for the year starting July 1. ↩
FY27 rates from the Department of Management. A higher rate isn’t always a bigger bill: it depends on how much property there is to tax. Sizes: Census Bureau 2024 estimates. ↩
Iowa Code section 384.1, as changed by House File 718 (2023). Until FY25 a city’s regular general levy was capped at $8.10 by itself, and a city at the cap could add an emergency levy of up to $0.27. From FY25 the general levy and several smaller levies were combined into one “consolidated” general levy with an $8.10 limit; a city whose combined rate was above $8.10 lowers it in steps, in years its taxable value grows by more than the law allows, until it reaches $8.10. So years before FY25 aren’t directly comparable with later ones. ↩
Levies outside the limit are each set aside for one purpose and have their own rules: debt service pays back bonds voters or the council approved, employee benefits cover pensions and insurance, and some (transit, an airport, insurance costs) have their own caps in state law. ↩
Tax increment financing: when a city sets up a TIF district, the taxable value there is frozen at a “base”. Taxes on the base go to every government as usual; taxes on the growth in value since (the “increment”) go to the city’s TIF fund to pay for the project, such as roads, utilities or a developer rebate, until the district ends. From the state’s valuation file (Iowa Data Hub), valuation year 2025. ↩
The state’s FY24 spending file repeats the year before for nearly every Iowa city, so that year isn’t shown. ↩
From the city’s annual financial reports to the state (Iowa Data Hub, city actual revenues). “Today’s dollars” adjusts each year by the consumer price index for the Midwest, so a flat line in today’s dollars means the money buys the same as before. ↩
Legislative and congressional districts that cover Waterloo; percentages are rough shares of its area. These lawmakers write the state laws and budget Waterloo works within. ↩

Sources: City budgets and levies from the Department of Management; tax rates from the Iowa Data Hub; state payments from the Department of Revenue; prices from the consumer price index; legislative districts from Census Bureau maps.

Waterloo

Who runs it

Meetings and agendas

Property taxes

Who gets a property owner’s tax bill in Waterloo

Rates over time

Compared with places this size3

The $8.10 limit

Outside the limit: $12.86 more5

Tax increment financing (TIF)

The city’s levies, FY27

Budget and spending

Where each dollar of Waterloo’s budget goes, FY26

Planned spending, FY27

What it spent each year

State money

What the state pays the city every year

Grants and project money

Has it kept up with prices?

Collected by the state for the city

Elections

Most recent: February 24, 2026

Related places

At the Statehouse and in Congress9

Compared with places this size³

Outside the limit: $12.86 more⁵

At the Statehouse and in Congress⁹