Local taxes › Madison County › Saint Charles

City

Saint Charles

$3,010 a yearproperty tax on a $200,000 home here, FY27, for every local government ($35.73 per $1,000 of taxable value)¹

$850 a yearof that goes to the city ($10.10 per $1,000)

$276,309property taxes the city levies, FY27

$649,485city 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

Who gets a property owner’s tax bill in Saint Charles

Homes and businesses in most of Saint Charles pay a combined $35.73 per $1,000 of taxable value (FY27). They pay it all to the Madison County treasurer, who passes each government its share; the city sets and gets only its own piece, $10.10. Estimate your bill.

Interstate 35 schools$16.1945%
City of Saint Charles$10.1028%
Madison County$4.7013%
Madison County Memorial Hospital$2.768%
Des Moines Area Community College$0.812%
South-Saint Charles Cemetery$0.511%
Madison County Assessor$0.431%
Madison County Extension (ISU Extension and Outreach)$0.23<1%

Rates over time

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

Year	Combined	City’s own
FY20	$41.28	$12.79
FY21	$41.15	$12.68
FY22	$41.61	$12.54
FY23	$38.52	$10.19
FY24	$39.44	$10.57
FY25	$39.31	$10.68
FY26	$37.78	$10.54
FY27	$35.73	$10.10

Show the numbers

Year	Combined	City’s own
FY20	$41.28	$12.79
FY21	$41.15	$12.68
FY22	$41.61	$12.54
FY23	$38.52	$10.19
FY24	$39.44	$10.57
FY25	$39.31	$10.68
FY26	$37.78	$10.54
FY27	$35.73	$10.10

The $8.10 limit

Saint Charles’s general levy is $7.89 per $1,000 of taxable value in FY27, $0.21 below the limit.³ 567 of 934 Iowa cities have a higher general levy. All cities.

$8.10

FY23 $8.10 · FY24 $8.10 · FY25 $8.13 · FY26 $8.05 · FY27 $7.89 (before FY25, the general levy alone)

Outside the limit: $2.21 more⁴

Liability, property & self insurance costs$1.70 · $46,466
Total Employee Benefit Levies$0.51 · $13,963

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$215,39478%
Liability, property & self insurance costs$46,46617%
Total Employee Benefit Levies$13,9635%

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 Works$186,05929%
Capital Projects$130,00020%
General Government$112,31017%
Public Safety$109,70017%
Culture and Recreation$78,12512%
Community and Economic Development$33,2915%

The state’s FY27 file doesn’t include business type / enterprise yet ($154,049 in FY26), so this total is low.

Budget compared with what it spent, FY23

Function	Budget	Spent
Public Works	$217,235	$210,207
Public Safety	$66,300	$66,669
Health and Social Services	$0	$0
General Government	$89,125	$81,372
Debt Service	$0	$0
Culture and Recreation	$68,978	$124,945
Community and Economic Development	$5,892	$26,960
Capital Projects	$0	$0
Business Type / Enterprise	$127,803	$104,729

What it spent each year

FY24 left out⁵

$801,681

Debt, reserves and audits

How local debt works · What an audit tells you

What Saint Charles owes

$726,000 at June 30, 2026: $1,134 per resident. 522nd most per resident of 939 Iowa places of its kind (the list).⁶

$2.5M

$726,000

June 30	Owed	Per resident
2026	$726,000	$1,134
2025	$766,000	$1,197
2024	$805,000	$1,258
2023	$843,000	$1,317
2022	$879,000	$1,373
2021	$976,000	$1,525
2020	$1.1M	$1,734
2019	$1.2M	$1,938
2018	$1.4M	$2,134
2017	$1.5M	$2,325
2016	$1.6M	$2,527
2015	$1.7M	$2,707
2014	$1.9M	$2,898
2013	$2.0M	$3,089
2012	$1.1M	$1,734
2011	$2.5M	$3,923
2010	$1.1M	$1,734

Show the numbers

June 30	Owed	Per resident
2026	$726,000	$1,134
2025	$766,000	$1,197
2024	$805,000	$1,258
2023	$843,000	$1,317
2022	$879,000	$1,373
2021	$976,000	$1,525
2020	$1.1M	$1,734
2019	$1.2M	$1,938
2018	$1.4M	$2,134
2017	$1.5M	$2,325
2016	$1.6M	$2,527
2015	$1.7M	$2,707
2014	$1.9M	$2,898
2013	$2.0M	$3,089
2012	$1.1M	$1,734
2011	$2.5M	$3,923
2010	$1.1M	$1,734

Down 35% since 2010.

Money in reserve

The state’s budget files don’t include cities’ fund balances⁷. Saint Charles’s latest audit has them: Periodic Examination, period ending Tuesday, June 30, 2026 (PDF).

Audits⁸

The latest: Periodic Examination for the period ending Tuesday, June 30, 2026 (PDF), released Monday, October 19, 2026, by the Auditor of State.

The report has no Schedule of Findings Iowa Funnel could read.

3 earlier reports for Saint Charles

Periodic Examination, period ending Sunday, March 31, 2019Tuesday, July 28, 2020
Financial Statement, period ending Saturday, June 30, 2012Monday, December 10, 2012
Financial Statement, period ending Wednesday, June 30, 2010Wednesday, September 14, 2011

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: $92,618 in FY25, up 2% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 18% less. Grants are below.

Show the numbers

Source	FY22	FY23	FY24	FY25
Road Use Tax (streets)	$88,794	$88,071	$90,402	$90,892
Commercial and industrial tax replacement (“backfill”)	$2,764	$2,413	$3,107	$1,726

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.

$1,577

State grants$1,40289%
Other$17511%

Year	Grants and projects
FY19	$0
FY20	$0
FY21	$0
FY22	$0
FY23	$0
FY24	$1,418
FY25	$1,577

Show the numbers

Year	Grants and projects
FY19	$0
FY20	$0
FY21	$0
FY22	$0
FY23	$0
FY24	$1,418
FY25	$1,577

Has it kept up with prices?

Each source from FY19 to FY25, after inflation.

Road Use Tax (streets)−14%$84,358 → $90,892, up 8% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 14% less
Commercial and industrial tax replacement (“backfill”)−78%$6,146 → $1,726, down 72% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 78% 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 44% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 15% more.

$91,043

$87,121

Federal grants, for comparison: $87,496 in FY24.

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

Madison County Interstate 35 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.

Saint Charles

Who runs it

Meetings and agendas

Property taxes

Who gets a property owner’s tax bill in Saint Charles

Rates over time

The $8.10 limit

Outside the limit: $2.21 more4

The city’s levies, FY27

Budget and spending

Planned spending, FY27

What it spent each year

Debt, reserves and audits

What Saint Charles 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: $2.21 more⁴

Audits⁸