Local taxes › Mitchell County › Carpenter

City

Carpenter

$2,440 a yearproperty tax on a $200,000 home here, FY27, for every local government ($28.97 per $1,000 of taxable value)¹

$680 a yearof that goes to the city ($8.10 per $1,000)

$21,814property taxes the city levies, FY27

$57,634city 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.

Julie RolfesCarpenter City Council At-Large · elected November 4, 2025
Kasey PetznickCarpenter City Council At-Large · elected November 4, 2025
Kelsey BundyCarpenter City Council At-Large · elected November 4, 2025
Patricia AndersonCarpenter City Council At-Large · elected November 4, 2025
Tim JohnsonCarpenter City Council At-Large · elected November 4, 2025
Tom RolfesCarpenter Mayor · elected November 4, 2025

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.

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 Carpenter

Homes and businesses in most of Carpenter pay a combined $28.97 per $1,000 of taxable value (FY27). They pay it all to the Mitchell County treasurer, who passes each government its share; the city sets and gets only its own piece, $8.10. Estimate your bill.

St Ansgar schools$11.9041%
City of Carpenter$8.1028%
Mitchell County$5.6419%
North Iowa Area Community College$1.244%
Mitchell County Hospital$1.134%
Mitchell County Assessor$0.652%
Mitchell County Extension (ISU Extension and Outreach)$0.311%

Rates over time

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

Year	Combined	City’s own
FY20	$28.81	$8.10
FY21	$29.01	$8.10
FY22	$28.91	$8.10
FY23	$29.02	$8.10
FY24	$28.79	$8.10
FY25	$28.36	$7.86
FY26	$28.58	$8.10
FY27	$28.97	$8.10

Show the numbers

Year	Combined	City’s own
FY20	$28.81	$8.10
FY21	$29.01	$8.10
FY22	$28.91	$8.10
FY23	$29.02	$8.10
FY24	$28.79	$8.10
FY25	$28.36	$7.86
FY26	$28.58	$8.10
FY27	$28.97	$8.10

Compared with places this size³

Carpenter’s city property tax rate of $8.10 per $1,000 is the 49th lowest of 118 Iowa cities with 60–140 people. The middle of the group is $9.38.

See all 118

#	Place	Rate per $1,000	People
1	Castana	$34.13	103
2	Brayton	$25.07	138
3	Hansell	$23.66	85
4	Whitten	$22.65	98
5	Stanley	$20.69	86
6	Rowan	$19.53	118
7	Chester	$19.30	134
8	Bouton	$19.25	125
9	Ricketts	$19.22	105
10	Varina	$19.09	69
11	Sharpsburg	$18.93	69
12	Grant	$18.71	82
13	Swaledale	$18.62	136
14	Derby	$18.13	89
15	Monmouth	$16.41	129
16	Blockton	$16.37	123
17	Geneva	$16.25	137
18	Waterville	$16.25	112
19	Popejoy	$15.80	76
20	Woodburn	$15.59	133
21	Marne	$15.03	109
22	Baldwin	$14.91	99
23	Truesdale	$14.56	64
24	Palmer	$13.89	137
25	Ayrshire	$13.55	128
26	Searsboro	$13.55	129
27	Ferguson	$13.53	98
28	Lanesboro	$13.53	112
29	Clemons	$12.69	135
30	Cylinder	$12.52	84
31	Millersburg	$12.40	135
32	Arion	$12.14	99
33	East Peru	$11.89	119
34	Dolliver	$11.85	63
35	Morley	$11.74	94
36	Ledyard	$11.74	118
37	Toronto	$11.68	101
38	Matlock	$11.44	74
39	Melrose	$11.27	110
40	Nodaway	$11.20	74
41	Promise City	$11.13	91
42	Masonville	$11.00	98
43	Somers	$10.99	121
44	Havelock	$10.95	127
45	Numa	$10.80	69
46	Pacific Junction	$10.56	99
47	Oto	$10.45	71
48	Bradgate	$10.37	76
49	North Washington	$10.23	107
50	Dawson	$10.19	110
51	Hartwick	$9.90	91
52	Gray	$9.85	62
53	Clare	$9.81	133
54	Rutland	$9.65	116
55	Superior	$9.58	127
56	Webster	$9.55	94
57	Nemaha	$9.53	65
58	Martinsburg	$9.49	109
59	Larrabee	$9.41	116
60	Hamilton	$9.35	125
61	Wiota	$9.32	91
62	Floris	$9.29	119
63	Mitchell	$9.22	118
64	Westphalia	$9.18	133
65	Welton	$8.86	124
66	Archer	$8.84	116
67	Fraser	$8.81	107
68	Macksburg	$8.81	103
69	Andover	$8.28	106
70	Carpenter	$8.10	92
71	Chillicothe	$8.10	79
72	Clio	$8.10	67
73	Orchard	$8.10	64
74	Rome	$8.10	112
75	Scarville	$8.10	75
76	Shannon City	$8.10	73
77	Struble	$8.10	72
78	Turin	$8.10	69
79	Unionville	$8.10	74
80	Westfield	$8.10	121
81	Vincent	$8.09	125
82	Buckeye	$7.94	82
83	Gruver	$7.89	63
84	Redding	$7.86	64
85	Morrison	$7.86	101
86	Oyens	$7.86	88
87	Ralston	$7.86	76
88	Chatsworth	$7.86	72
89	Cromwell	$7.81	104
90	Arispe	$7.71	95
91	Luzerne	$7.69	111
92	Westwood	$7.67	96
93	Kinross	$7.57	80
94	Bernard	$7.56	117
95	Bevington	$7.41	62
96	Garber	$7.35	76
97	Franklin	$7.31	133
98	Spring Hill	$7.26	68
99	Greenville	$7.24	69
100	Spragueville	$7.20	92
101	Weldon	$7.18	134
102	Craig	$7.01	78
103	Brunsville	$6.95	128
104	Zwingle	$6.93	86
105	Pleasant Plain	$6.79	83
106	Houghton	$6.73	129
107	Williamson	$6.72	126
108	Willey	$6.69	72
109	Lincoln	$6.32	119
110	Tennant	$6.29	83
111	Ackworth	$5.90	117
112	Harper	$5.29	117
113	Keomah Village	$3.15	107
114	Mcintire	$2.78	115
115	Graf	$2.56	76
116	Centralia	$2.41	117
117	North Buena Vista	$1.78	107
118	Balltown	$0.12	78

The $8.10 limit

Carpenter’s general levy is $8.10 per $1,000 of taxable value in FY27, at the limit.⁴ 247 of 934 Iowa cities have a higher general levy. All cities.

$8.10

FY23 $8.10 · FY24 $8.10 · FY25 $7.86 · FY26 $8.10 · FY27 $8.10 (before FY25, the general levy alone)

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$20,905100%

Budget and spending

Reading a local budget

Where each dollar of Carpenter’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 119 Iowa cities closest in size (60–140 people).

Where it goes	Of each dollar	Cities this size (119)
General Government	53¢	28¢
Public Works	34¢	31¢
Public Safety	7¢	10¢
Community and Economic Development	4¢	2¢
Culture and Recreation	2¢	7¢

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.

General Government$25,32644%
Public Works$22,00038%
Culture and Recreation$4,4008%
Public Safety$3,4086%
Community and Economic Development$2,5004%

Budget compared with what it spent, FY23

Function	Budget	Spent
Public Works	$20,879	$65,605
Public Safety	$3,408	$3,862
Health and Social Services	$0	$0
General Government	$23,462	$24,838
Debt Service	$0	$0
Culture and Recreation	$6,300	$5,236
Community and Economic Development	$1,700	$2,196
Capital Projects	$0	$0
Business Type / Enterprise	$0	$0

What it spent each year

FY24 left out⁵

$101,737

$91,976

Debt, reserves and audits

How local debt works · What an audit tells you

What Carpenter owes

No debt at June 30, 2026.⁶

$388,208

June 30	Owed	Per resident
2026	$0	$0
2025	$0	$0
2024	$0	$0
2023	$0	$0
2022	$0	$0
2021	$0	$0
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	$388,208	$4,462
2011	$388,208	$4,462
2010	$388,208	$4,462

Show the numbers

June 30	Owed	Per resident
2026	$0	$0
2025	$0	$0
2024	$0	$0
2023	$0	$0
2022	$0	$0
2021	$0	$0
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	$388,208	$4,462
2011	$388,208	$4,462
2010	$388,208	$4,462

Down 100% since 2010.

The 5% limit⁷

General obligation debt is $0, 0% of the limit of about $268,605 (5% of $5.4M, the full value of its taxable property in 2024).

Money in reserve

The state’s budget files don’t include cities’ fund balances⁸. Carpenter’s latest audit has them: Periodic Examination, period ending Monday, March 31, 2025 (PDF).

Audits⁹

The latest: Periodic Examination for the period ending Monday, March 31, 2025 (PDF), released Wednesday, January 7, 2026, by a CPA firm.

1 earlier report for Carpenter

Periodic Examination, period ending Friday, March 31, 2017Thursday, September 28, 2017

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? ¹⁰

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: $8,393 in FY25, down 4% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 24% less. Grants are below.

Show the numbers

Source	FY22	FY23	FY24	FY25
Road Use Tax (streets)	$7,831	$7,584	$7,796	$7,838
Commercial and industrial tax replacement (“backfill”)	–	$536	$689	$555

Has it kept up with prices?

Each source from FY19 to FY25, after inflation.

Road Use Tax (streets)−29%$8,769 → $7,838, down 11% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 29% 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 6% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 15% less.

$12,478

$12,113

Federal grants, for comparison: $7,925 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)¹¹.

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

Most recent: November 4, 2025

City · 2

Carpenter City Council At-Large

5 seats: the top 5 win.

Julie Rolfes Winner2727.0%
Kelsey Bundy Winner2626.0%
Patricia Anderson Winner1818.0%
Kasey Petznick Winner1212.0%
Tim Johnson Winner1010.0%
Alexander Schmidt 77.0%

1 more →

Carpenter Mayor

Tom Rolfes Unopposed30100.0%

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

Who has filed for Tuesday, November 2, 2027

Filing hasn’t opened. These seats are expected on the ballot.

Carpenter City Council At-Large
Carpenter Mayor
Now held by Tom Rolfes

Candidates as county auditors and civicAPI list them; a filing can take a few days to appear here¹².

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 ballot¹³.

Related places

At the Statehouse and in Congress¹⁴

Doug Campbell (Sen. 30)Jane Bloomingdale (Rep. 60)

U.S. House:District 2

Mitchell County St Ansgar 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. ↩
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. ↩
Article XI, section 3 of the Iowa Constitution limits a county, city or school district’s debt to 5% of the value of the taxable property in it. Iowa applies the limit to the full (100%) value, before the rollback, and it covers general obligation debt, backed by property taxes; revenue bonds repaid only from fees, like water bills, don’t count. Iowa Funnel compares general obligation debt with 5% of the value two years earlier, as the last tax lists before the year; a government’s own bond documents state its exact figure. ↩
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. ↩
Expected seats come from when each seat was last elected and its term. Filed candidates come from civicAPI and, in Black Hawk, Johnson and Scott counties, the auditor’s published candidate list, read weekly while filing is open. Check with the county auditor or city clerk before relying on it. Only names are shown. ↩
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”). ↩
Legislative and congressional districts that cover Carpenter; percentages are rough shares of its area. These lawmakers write the state laws and budget Carpenter 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.

Carpenter

Who runs it

Meetings and agendas

Property taxes

Who gets a property owner’s tax bill in Carpenter

Rates over time

Compared with places this size3

The $8.10 limit

The city’s levies, FY27

Budget and spending

Where each dollar of Carpenter’s budget goes, FY26

Planned spending, FY27

What it spent each year

Debt, reserves and audits

What Carpenter owes

The 5% limit7

Money in reserve

Audits9

State money

What the state pays the city every year

Has it kept up with prices?

Collected by the state for the city

Business awards

Elections

Most recent: November 4, 2025

Who has filed for Tuesday, November 2, 2027

Past ballot measures

When a measure can be on the ballot

Related places

At the Statehouse and in Congress14

Compared with places this size³

The 5% limit⁷

Audits⁹

At the Statehouse and in Congress¹⁴