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City

Sioux Center

$2,760 a yearproperty tax on a $200,000 home here, FY27, for every local government ($32.77 per $1,000 of taxable value)¹

$930 a yearof that goes to the city ($11.05 per $1,000)

$5.1Mproperty taxes the city levies, FY27

$25.0Mcity 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.

Jennifer VermeerSioux Center City Council At-Large · elected November 4, 2025
Mark HulshofSioux Center City Council At-Large · elected November 4, 2025
Randy VreugdenhilSioux Center City Council At-Large · elected November 4, 2025
Cory GottoSioux Center City Council At-Large · elected November 7, 2023
Dale Vander BergSioux Center Mayor · elected November 7, 2023
Eric MoermanSioux Center 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 Sioux Center

Homes and businesses in most of Sioux Center pay a combined $32.77 per $1,000 of taxable value (FY27). They pay it all to the Sioux County treasurer, who passes each government its share; the city sets and gets only its own piece, $11.05. Estimate your bill.

Sioux Center schools$15.9949%
City of Sioux Center$11.0534%
Sioux County$4.0712%
Northwest Iowa Community College$1.314%
Sioux County Assessor$0.22<1%
Sioux County Extension (ISU Extension and Outreach)$0.12<1%

Rates over time

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

Year	Combined	City’s own
FY20	$34.91	$11.34
FY21	$34.57	$11.26
FY22	$34.09	$11.16
FY23	$33.90	$11.13
FY24	$34.34	$11.13
FY25	$34.13	$11.11
FY26	$33.69	$11.24
FY27	$32.77	$11.05

Show the numbers

Year	Combined	City’s own
FY20	$34.91	$11.34
FY21	$34.57	$11.26
FY22	$34.09	$11.16
FY23	$33.90	$11.13
FY24	$34.34	$11.13
FY25	$34.13	$11.11
FY26	$33.69	$11.24
FY27	$32.77	$11.05

Compared with places this size³

Sioux Center’s city property tax rate of $11.05 per $1,000 is the 7th lowest of 39 Iowa cities with 5,800–12,000 people. The middle of the group is $14.99.

See all 39

#	Place	Rate per $1,000	People
1	Oelwein	$20.16	5,788
2	Keokuk	$19.68	9,462
3	Independence	$19.01	6,266
4	Fort Madison	$18.84	9,983
5	Denison	$18.69	8,302
6	Perry	$17.91	8,046
7	Waverly	$17.53	10,576
8	Atlantic	$17.48	6,717
9	Knoxville	$17.46	7,440
10	Fairfield	$16.69	9,511
11	Webster City	$16.51	7,763
12	Anamosa	$15.95	5,845
13	Charles City	$15.95	7,081
14	Grinnell	$15.60	9,495
15	Decorah	$15.52	7,454
16	Estherville	$15.27	5,796
17	Washington	$15.21	7,281
18	Storm Lake	$15.17	11,627
19	Boone	$15.13	12,461
20	Creston	$14.99	7,421
21	Nevada	$14.58	7,082
22	Oskaloosa	$14.47	11,575
23	Orange City	$14.01	6,547
24	Spencer	$13.84	11,418
25	Hiawatha	$13.78	7,347
26	Adel	$13.43	6,763
27	Maquoketa	$12.85	6,064
28	Pleasant Hill	$12.10	11,942
29	Mount Pleasant	$11.94	8,509
30	Tiffin	$11.80	6,695
31	Carroll	$11.25	10,125
32	Le Mars	$11.18	10,674
33	Sioux Center	$11.05	8,675
34	Polk City	$11.00	6,430
35	Bondurant	$10.82	9,511
36	Pella	$10.75	10,965
37	Clear Lake	$9.85	7,602
38	Asbury	$8.32	6,051
39	Eldridge	$8.13	6,967

The $8.10 limit

Sioux Center’s general levy is $8.09 per $1,000 of taxable value in FY27, $0.01 below the limit.⁴ 382 of 934 Iowa cities have a higher general levy. All cities.

$8.10

FY23 $8.10 · FY24 $8.10 · FY25 $8.34 · FY26 $8.34 · FY27 $8.09 (before FY25, the general levy alone)

Outside the limit: $2.96 more⁵

Total Employee Benefit Levies$2.09 · $958,459
Liability, property & self insurance costs$0.61 · $280,000
Debt Service Levy$0.20 · $119,495
Opr & Maint publicly owned Transit$0.05 · $25,000

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$3.7M73%
Total Employee Benefit Levies$958,45919%
Liability, property & self insurance costs$280,0006%
Debt Service Levy$119,4952%
Opr & Maint publicly owned Transit$25,0000%

Budget and spending

Reading a local budget

Where each dollar of Sioux Center’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 38 Iowa cities closest in size (5,800–12,000 people).

Where it goes	Of each dollar	Cities this size (38)
Business Type / Enterprise	54¢	35¢
Capital Projects	23¢	22¢
Public Safety	5¢	13¢
Debt Service	5¢	7¢
Public Works	4¢	8¢
Everything else	8¢	15¢

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$8.3M33%
Culture and Recreation$6.0M24%
Debt Service$3.3M13%
Public Safety$2.9M12%
Public Works$2.4M10%
General Government$1.4M5%
Community and Economic Development$669,8203%

The state’s FY27 file doesn’t include business type / enterprise yet ($29.7M in FY26), so this total is low.

Budget compared with what it spent, FY23

Function	Budget	Spent
Public Works	$2.1M	$1.8M
Public Safety	$1.9M	$2.1M
Health and Social Services	$0	$0
General Government	$1.2M	$1.2M
Debt Service	$2.4M	$1.9M
Culture and Recreation	$4.5M	$5.4M
Community and Economic Development	$622,520	$934,847
Capital Projects	$9.2M	$13.2M
Business Type / Enterprise	$25.6M	$32.1M

What it spent each year

FY24 left out⁶

$71.7M

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? ⁷

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: $1.2M in FY25, up 34% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 7% more. Grants are below.

Show the numbers

Source	FY22	FY23	FY24	FY25
Road Use Tax (streets)	$1.1M	$1.1M	$1.2M	$1.2M
Commercial and industrial tax replacement (“backfill”)	–	–	–	$59,727

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.

$7.2M

Iowa DOT projects$7.1M98%
State grants$141,5642%

Year	Grants and projects
FY19	$152,922
FY20	$150,090
FY21	$151,063
FY22	$158,354
FY23	$1.3M
FY24	$6.5M
FY25	$7.2M

Show the numbers

Year	Grants and projects
FY19	$152,922
FY20	$150,090
FY21	$151,063
FY22	$158,354
FY23	$1.3M
FY24	$6.5M
FY25	$7.2M

Has it kept up with prices?

Each source from FY19 to FY25, after inflation.

Road Use Tax (streets)+1%$916,040 → $1.2M, up 27% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 1% 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 102% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 61% more.

$1.7M

Federal grants, for comparison: $532,346 in FY25.

Elections

Most recent: November 4, 2025

City · 1

Sioux Center City Council At-Large

3 seats: the top 3 win.

Mark Hulshof Winner51634.9%
Jennifer Vermeer Winner48232.6%
Randy Vreugdenhil Winner48032.5%

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

Related places

At the Statehouse and in Congress⁸

Jeff Taylor (Sen. 2)Skyler Wheeler (Rep. 4)

U.S. House:District 4

Sioux County Sioux Center 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. ↩
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 Sioux Center; percentages are rough shares of its area. These lawmakers write the state laws and budget Sioux Center 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.

Sioux Center

Who runs it

Meetings and agendas

Property taxes

Who gets a property owner’s tax bill in Sioux Center

Rates over time

Compared with places this size3

The $8.10 limit

Outside the limit: $2.96 more5

The city’s levies, FY27

Budget and spending

Where each dollar of Sioux Center’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: November 4, 2025

Related places

At the Statehouse and in Congress8

Compared with places this size³

Outside the limit: $2.96 more⁵

At the Statehouse and in Congress⁸