City

St Olaf

$3,410 a yearproperty tax on a $200,000 home here, FY24, for every local government ($39.42 per $1,000 of taxable value)¹

$1,730 a yearof that goes to the city ($19.96 per $1,000)

$45,650property taxes the city levies, FY27

$94,270city 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.

No officials known yet.

Meetings and agendas

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

Iowa Funnel doesn’t read this city’s agendas yet. 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

Rates over time

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

Year	Combined	City’s own
FY20	$35.83	$14.43
FY21	$35.75	$14.55
FY22	–	$14.24
FY23	–	$15.33
FY24	$39.42	$17.78
FY25	–	$19.82
FY26	–	$20.11
FY27	–	$19.96

Show the numbers

Year	Combined	City’s own
FY20	$35.83	$14.43
FY21	$35.75	$14.55
FY22	–	$14.24
FY23	–	$15.33
FY24	$39.42	$17.78
FY25	–	$19.82
FY26	–	$20.11
FY27	–	$19.96

The $8.10 limit

St Olaf’s general levy is $8.26 per $1,000 of taxable value in FY27, $0.16 above the limit; it has to come down in steps.³ 102 of 934 Iowa cities have a higher general levy. All cities.

$8.10

FY23 $8.10 · FY24 $8.10 · FY25 $8.51 · FY26 $8.51 · FY27 $8.26 (before FY25, the general levy alone)

Outside the limit: $11.70 more⁴

Liability, property & self insurance costs$10.83 · $24,524
Total Employee Benefit Levies$0.87 · $1,962

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.

Liability, property & self insurance costs$24,52454%
Consolidate General Fund$18,70841%
Total Employee Benefit Levies$1,9624%

Budget and spending

Reading a local budget

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.

Public Safety$35,00037%
General Government$23,60025%
Public Works$22,30024%
Culture and Recreation$12,47013%
Community and Economic Development$5001%
Health and Social Services$4000%

The state’s FY27 file doesn’t include business type / enterprise yet ($89,540 in FY26), so this total is low.

Budget compared with what it spent, FY23

Function	Budget	Spent
Public Works	$21,100	$34,198
Public Safety	$35,574	$33,795
Health and Social Services	$430	$106
General Government	$19,200	$17,622
Debt Service	$0	$0
Culture and Recreation	$23,670	$6,619
Community and Economic Development	$300	$0
Capital Projects	$0	$0
Business Type / Enterprise	$78,640	$86,133

What it spent each year

FY24 left out⁵

$313,471

$156,251

Debt, reserves and audits

How local debt works · What an audit tells you

What St Olaf owes

$167,000 at June 30, 2026: $1,575 per resident. 445th most per resident of 939 Iowa places of its kind (the list).⁶

$208,254

$167,000

June 30	Owed	Per resident
2026	$167,000	$1,575
2025	$177,000	$1,670
2024	$197,000	$1,858
2023	$197,000	$1,858
2022	$208,254	$1,965
2021	$158,343	$1,494
2020	$0	$0
2019	$0	$0
2018	$0	$0
2017	$0	$0
2016	$0	$0
2015	$0	$0
2014	$0	$0
2013	$0	$0
2012	$0	$0
2011	$0	$0
2010	$0	$0

Show the numbers

June 30	Owed	Per resident
2026	$167,000	$1,575
2025	$177,000	$1,670
2024	$197,000	$1,858
2023	$197,000	$1,858
2022	$208,254	$1,965
2021	$158,343	$1,494
2020	$0	$0
2019	$0	$0
2018	$0	$0
2017	$0	$0
2016	$0	$0
2015	$0	$0
2014	$0	$0
2013	$0	$0
2012	$0	$0
2011	$0	$0
2010	$0	$0

Up 5% since 2021.

Money in reserve

The state’s budget files don’t include cities’ fund balances⁷. St Olaf’s latest audit has them: Periodic Examination, period ending Sunday, June 30, 2024 (PDF).

Audits⁸

The latest: Periodic Examination for the period ending Sunday, June 30, 2024 (PDF), released Friday, October 24, 2025, by the Auditor of State.

1 earlier report for St Olaf

Periodic Examination, period ending Thursday, June 30, 2016Tuesday, December 27, 2016

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? ⁹

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: $4,246 in FY25, up 10% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 12% less. Grants are below.

Show the numbers

Source	FY22	FY23	FY24	FY25
Road Use Tax (streets)	$4,073	$4,109	$4,223	$4,246

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.

$144,725

$6,869

Revenue in Lieu of Taxes$6,869100%

Year	Grants and projects
FY19	$6,260
FY20	$5,642
FY21	$144,725
FY22	$107,844
FY23	$6,341
FY24	$6,762
FY25	$6,869

Show the numbers

Year	Grants and projects
FY19	$6,260
FY20	$5,642
FY21	$144,725
FY22	$107,844
FY23	$6,341
FY24	$6,762
FY25	$6,869

Has it kept up with prices?

Each source from FY19 to FY25, after inflation.

Road Use Tax (streets)−12%$3,865 → $4,246, up 10% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 12% less

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 29% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 3% more.

$16,118

$15,555

Federal grants, for comparison: $7,551 in FY23.

Business awards

Every award statewide

Elections

Running for mayor and city council

Filing opens Monday, August 23, 2027: in 285 days.

For the Tuesday, November 2, 2027 election, candidates file Monday, August 23, 2027 to Thursday, September 16, 2027 with the county auditor (or the city clerk, if the auditor names the clerk to take them)¹⁰.

In a city that can hold a primary, filing runs Monday, August 9, 2027 to Thursday, August 26, 2027.

No local races loaded yet.

Past ballot measures

None found since 2022.

When a measure can be on the ballot

Tuesday, March 2, 2027 · no bond or debt questions
Tuesday, September 14, 2027 · no bond or debt questions
Tuesday, November 2, 2027 · any question, including bonds
Tuesday, March 7, 2028 · no bond or debt questions

Bonds and other borrowing can only go on the November ballot¹¹.

Related places

Clayton CountyCentral Clayton 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. ↩
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. ↩
The state’s FY24 spending file repeats the year before for nearly every Iowa city, so that year isn’t shown. ↩
From the reports each government files with the Treasurer of State’s debt reporting site. “Per resident” divides by the population the site lists, the same figure for every year, so the trend shows the debt itself changing. ↩
The Department of Management’s city budget and annual report files on the Iowa Data Hub give revenue and spending by city, but no beginning or ending fund balances. A city’s audit or annual financial report has them, in its statement of net position and its fund balance schedules. ↩
From the Auditor of State’s list of audit reports. Every Iowa city, county and school district is audited or examined: larger ones each year by a CPA firm or the Auditor of State, small cities every few years. Findings are problems the auditors report, from weak controls over cash to breaking a law. ↩
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. ↩
Iowa Code §376.4(1)(a): nomination papers are filed 71 to 47 days before the election, by 5:00 p.m. on the last day. Cities that may hold a primary election file earlier: 85 to 68 days before. ↩
Iowa Code §39.2(4) (2026), paragraph d: “For any political subdivision of this state, if the special election is in whole or in part for the question of issuing bonds or other indebtedness, the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.” This applies to bond elections on or after July 1, 2023. Subsection 2 adds that “a special election for a city, school district, or merged area shall not be scheduled to coincide with the general election.” A few kinds of elections follow their own rules (“unless otherwise provided by law”). ↩

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.

St Olaf

Who runs it

Meetings and agendas

Property taxes

Rates over time

The $8.10 limit

Outside the limit: $11.70 more4

The city’s levies, FY27

Budget and spending

Planned spending, FY27

What it spent each year

Debt, reserves and audits

What St Olaf owes

Money in reserve

Audits8

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

Business awards

Elections

Past ballot measures

When a measure can be on the ballot

Related places

Outside the limit: $11.70 more⁴

Audits⁸