Local taxes › Polk County › Pleasant Hill

City

Pleasant Hill

$2,150 a yearproperty tax on a $200,000 home here, FY27, for every local government ($25.56 per $1,000 of taxable value)¹

$1,020 a yearof that goes to the city ($12.10 per $1,000)

$8.4Mproperty taxes the city levies, FY27

$34.1Mcity 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.

Alyson DeMossPleasant Hill City Council At-Large · elected November 4, 2025
Andrew BirchPleasant Hill City Council At-Large · elected November 4, 2025
Sara KurovskiPleasant Hill Mayor · elected November 4, 2025
Konnor HodgesPleasant Hill City Council At-Large · elected November 7, 2023
Leonard MurrayPleasant Hill City Council At-Large · elected November 7, 2023
Mark A. KonradPleasant Hill 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.

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 Pleasant Hill

Homes and businesses in most of Pleasant Hill pay a combined $25.56 per $1,000 of taxable value (FY27). They pay it all to the Polk County treasurer, who passes each government its share; the city sets and gets only its own piece, $12.10. Estimate your bill.

Rates over time

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

Year	Combined	City’s own
FY20	$33.00	$11.50
FY21	$32.74	$11.50
FY22	$32.43	$11.50
FY23	$32.05	$11.50
FY24	$26.44	$11.50
FY25	$26.25	$11.50
FY26	$26.19	$11.50
FY27	$25.56	$12.10

Show the numbers

Year	Combined	City’s own
FY20	$33.00	$11.50
FY21	$32.74	$11.50
FY22	$32.43	$11.50
FY23	$32.05	$11.50
FY24	$26.44	$11.50
FY25	$26.25	$11.50
FY26	$26.19	$11.50
FY27	$25.56	$12.10

Compared with places this size³

Pleasant Hill’s city property tax rate of $12.10 per $1,000 is the 8th lowest of 22 Iowa cities with 8,000–17,000 people. The middle of the group is $14.68.

See all 22

#	Place	Rate per $1,000	People
1	Keokuk	$19.68	9,462
2	Fort Madison	$18.84	9,983
3	Denison	$18.69	8,302
4	Perry	$17.91	8,046
5	Waverly	$17.53	10,576
6	Newton	$17.10	15,709
7	Fairfield	$16.69	9,511
8	Grinnell	$15.60	9,495
9	Storm Lake	$15.17	11,627
10	Boone	$15.13	12,461
11	Norwalk	$14.89	15,396
12	Oskaloosa	$14.47	11,575
13	Spencer	$13.84	11,418
14	Indianola	$13.33	16,297
15	Pleasant Hill	$12.10	11,942
16	Mount Pleasant	$11.94	8,509
17	Carroll	$11.25	10,125
18	Le Mars	$11.18	10,674
19	Sioux Center	$11.05	8,675
20	Bondurant	$10.82	9,511
21	Pella	$10.75	10,965
22	Grimes	$10.70	17,266

The $8.10 limit

Pleasant Hill’s general levy is $8.21 per $1,000 of taxable value in FY27, $0.11 above the limit; it has to come down in steps.⁴ 157 of 934 Iowa cities have a higher general levy. All cities.

$8.10

FY23 $8.10 · FY24 $8.10 · FY25 $8.37 · FY26 $8.37 · FY27 $8.21 (before FY25, the general levy alone)

Outside the limit: $3.89 more⁵

Total Employee Benefit Levies$3.38 · $2.3M
Debt Service Levy$0.51 · $420,271

Tax increment financing (TIF)

$129.8M of taxable value in Pleasant Hill is in TIF districts’ increment (16% of the city’s taxable value), 2025 valuations, taxed in FY27.⁶ It budgeted $3.1M in TIF revenue for FY25.

$5.1M

What that value would raise at each government’s rate, FY27⁷

Taxes on TIF value go to the city’s TIF fund instead of the governments that levy them, including about $1.5M of the city’s own.

Polk County$777,507

Year	TIF revenue
FY16	$3.8M
FY17	$3.9M
FY18	$3.1M
FY19	$3.5M
FY20	$3.6M
FY21	$4.2M
FY22	$4.2M
FY23	$5.1M

Show the numbers

Year	TIF revenue
FY16	$3.8M
FY17	$3.9M
FY18	$3.1M
FY19	$3.5M
FY20	$3.6M
FY21	$4.2M
FY22	$4.2M
FY23	$5.1M

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$5.7M67%
Total Employee Benefit Levies$2.3M28%
Debt Service Levy$420,2715%

Budget and spending

Reading a local budget

Where each dollar of Pleasant Hill’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 21 Iowa cities closest in size (8,000–17,000 people).

Where it goes	Of each dollar	Cities this size (21)
Capital Projects	42¢	22¢
Public Safety	17¢	13¢
Business Type / Enterprise	16¢	37¢
Debt Service	6¢	7¢
Public Works	6¢	6¢
Everything else	12¢	14¢

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$17.5M51%
Public Safety$6.9M20%
Debt Service$2.4M7%
Public Works$2.3M7%
General Government$2.0M6%
Culture and Recreation$1.8M5%
Community and Economic Development$1.2M3%

The state’s FY27 file doesn’t include business type / enterprise yet ($6.0M in FY26), so this total is low.

Budget compared with what it spent, FY23

Function	Budget	Spent
Public Works	$2.1M	$1.5M
Public Safety	$5.0M	$4.7M
Health and Social Services	$0	$0
General Government	$1.6M	$1.6M
Debt Service	$6.8M	$6.8M
Culture and Recreation	$1.7M	$1.4M
Community and Economic Development	$903,559	$914,259
Capital Projects	$11.9M	$7.0M
Business Type / Enterprise	$4.3M	$3.6M

What it spent each year

FY24 left out⁸

$37.9M

Debt, reserves and audits

How local debt works · What an audit tells you

What Pleasant Hill owes

$20.9M at June 30, 2026: $2,060 per resident. 378th most per resident of 939 Iowa places of its kind (the list).⁹

$27.0M

$20.9M

June 30	Owed	Per resident
2026	$20.9M	$2,060
2025	$22.4M	$2,203
2024	$23.6M	$2,328
2023	$24.6M	$2,425
2022	$23.1M	$2,279
2021	$27.0M	$2,662
2020	$21.1M	$2,081
2019	$6.6M	$646
2018	$8.3M	$815
2017	$11.2M	$1,108
2016	$3.9M	$383
2015	$2.3M	$229
2014	$2.9M	$282
2013	$7.6M	$748
2012	$10.7M	$1,054
2011	$8.4M	$831
2010	$7.6M	$748

Show the numbers

June 30	Owed	Per resident
2026	$20.9M	$2,060
2025	$22.4M	$2,203
2024	$23.6M	$2,328
2023	$24.6M	$2,425
2022	$23.1M	$2,279
2021	$27.0M	$2,662
2020	$21.1M	$2,081
2019	$6.6M	$646
2018	$8.3M	$815
2017	$11.2M	$1,108
2016	$3.9M	$383
2015	$2.3M	$229
2014	$2.9M	$282
2013	$7.6M	$748
2012	$10.7M	$1,054
2011	$8.4M	$831
2010	$7.6M	$748

Up 175% since 2010.

The 5% limit¹⁰

General obligation debt is $20.9M, 31% of the limit of about $67.7M (5% of $1.35B, the full value of its taxable property in 2024).

3 obligations at June 30, 2026

Kind	For	Paid off by	Owed
General Obligation	Public Safety Facility and Library/FD renovation	2039	$12.3M
General Obligation	Streets, sidewalks, sanitary sewer, and parks.	2038	$6.9M
General Obligation	Equipment and Vehicle Replacement	2032	$1.7M

General obligation bonds are repaid from property taxes; revenue bonds and loans from the fees or revenue they’re tied to. On the Treasurer’s site

Money in reserve

The state’s budget files don’t include cities’ fund balances¹¹. Pleasant Hill’s latest audit has them: Financial Statement, period ending Monday, June 30, 2025 (PDF).

Audits¹²

The latest: Financial Statement for the period ending Monday, June 30, 2025 (PDF), released Wednesday, December 31, 2025, by a CPA firm.

7 earlier reports for Pleasant Hill

Financial Statement, period ending Sunday, June 30, 2024Wednesday, December 4, 2024
Financial Statement, period ending Friday, June 30, 2023Friday, October 11, 2024
Financial Statement, period ending Thursday, June 30, 2022Wednesday, October 18, 2023
Financial Statement, period ending Wednesday, June 30, 2021Monday, December 6, 2021
Financial Statement, period ending Tuesday, June 30, 2020Thursday, November 12, 2020
Financial Statement, period ending Sunday, June 30, 2019Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Financial Statement, period ending Saturday, June 30, 2018Monday, December 10, 2018

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? ¹³

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: $1.6M in FY25, up 18% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 6% less. Grants are below.

Show the numbers

Source	FY22	FY23	FY24	FY25
Road Use Tax (streets)	$1.4M	$1.4M	$1.4M	$1.5M
Commercial and industrial tax replacement (“backfill”)	$183,543	$155,935	$116,950	$77,967

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.

$333,747

$305,661

State grants$305,661100%

Year	Grants and projects
FY19	$38,412
FY20	$170,759
FY21	$333,747
FY22	$157,119
FY23	$148,950
FY24	$170,213
FY25	$305,661

Show the numbers

Year	Grants and projects
FY19	$38,412
FY20	$170,759
FY21	$333,747
FY22	$157,119
FY23	$148,950
FY24	$170,213
FY25	$305,661

Has it kept up with prices?

Each source from FY19 to FY25, after inflation.

Road Use Tax (streets)+5%$1.1M → $1.5M, up 32% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 5% more
Commercial and industrial tax replacement (“backfill”)−69%$202,809 → $77,967, down 62% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 69% 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 72% since FY20 while prices rose 24%, so it buys 39% more.

$2.5M

$2.3M

Federal grants, for comparison: $429,621 in FY25.

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)¹⁴.

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

Pleasant Hill City Council At-Large

2 seats: the top 2 win.

Andrew Birch Winner1,04839.1%
Alyson DeMoss Winner87832.7%
Austin Bittner 75728.2%

Pleasant Hill Mayor

Sara Kurovski Unopposed1,392100.0%

Local races from civicAPI and county auditors for Pleasant Hill; 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.

Pleasant Hill City Council At-Large (3 seats)
Now held by Konnor Hodges, Mark A. Konrad, Leonard Murray

Candidates as county auditors and civicAPI list them; a filing can take a few days to appear here¹⁵.

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 ballot¹⁶.

Related places

At the Statehouse and in Congress¹⁷

Mike Pike (Sen. 20)Rick L. Olson (Rep. 39)

U.S. House:District 3

Polk County Des Moines Independent schools Southeast Polk 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. ↩
This multiplies the taxable value in the city’s TIF districts by each government’s rate on TIF value. It is not the money each government lost: without TIF, the same taxes would be spread over a bigger base, so rates would be lower for everyone; the state’s school aid formula makes up much of a school district’s share; and some of the value might not have been built without TIF. Each government still gets its debt service levy on TIF value, and a school district its physical plant and equipment and instructional support levies; those aren’t counted here. Community colleges, assessors and other smaller levies are left out. ↩
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 Pleasant Hill; percentages are rough shares of its area. These lawmakers write the state laws and budget Pleasant Hill 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.

Pleasant Hill

Who runs it

Meetings and agendas

Property taxes

Who gets a property owner’s tax bill in Pleasant Hill

Rates over time

Compared with places this size3

The $8.10 limit

Outside the limit: $3.89 more5

Tax increment financing (TIF)

What that value would raise at each government’s rate, FY277

The city’s levies, FY27

Budget and spending

Where each dollar of Pleasant Hill’s budget goes, FY26

Planned spending, FY27

What it spent each year

Debt, reserves and audits

What Pleasant Hill owes

The 5% limit10

Money in reserve

Audits12

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

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 Congress17

Compared with places this size³

Outside the limit: $3.89 more⁵

What that value would raise at each government’s rate, FY27⁷

The 5% limit¹⁰

Audits¹²

At the Statehouse and in Congress¹⁷