City

Blockton

$3,240 a yearproperty tax on a $200,000 home here, FY27, for every local government ($38.53 per $1,000 of taxable value)¹

$1,380 a yearof that goes to the city ($16.37 per $1,000)

$47,709property taxes the city levies, FY27

$121,975city budget, all funds, FY27²

Who runs it

The city council passes ordinances, adopts the budget and sets the city’s property tax.

Drexel WallBlockton Mayor · elected November 4, 2025
Richard BrownBlockton City Council At-Large · elected November 4, 2025
Steven HensonBlockton City Council At-Large · elected November 4, 2025
Tina MaxsonBlockton City Council At-Large · elected November 4, 2025
Jodi LawrenceBlockton City Council At-Large · elected November 7, 2023
John CavinBlockton 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 Blockton

Homes and businesses in most of Blockton pay a combined $38.53 per $1,000 of taxable value (FY27). They pay it all to the Taylor County treasurer, who passes each government its share; the city sets and gets only its own piece, $16.37. Estimate your bill.

City of Blockton$16.3742%
Bedford schools$10.8628%
Taylor County$9.3124%
Southwestern Community College$1.073%
Taylor County Assessor$0.622%
Taylor County Extension (ISU Extension and Outreach)$0.30<1%

Rates over time

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

Year	Combined	City’s own
FY20	$39.10	$14.94
FY21	$39.58	$15.27
FY22	$39.89	$15.66
FY23	$40.39	$17.63
FY24	$42.63	$19.78
FY25	$41.07	$18.62
FY26	$46.03	$24.15
FY27	$38.53	$16.37

Show the numbers

Year	Combined	City’s own
FY20	$39.10	$14.94
FY21	$39.58	$15.27
FY22	$39.89	$15.66
FY23	$40.39	$17.63
FY24	$42.63	$19.78
FY25	$41.07	$18.62
FY26	$46.03	$24.15
FY27	$38.53	$16.37

Compared with places this size³

Blockton’s city property tax rate of $16.37 per $1,000 is the 23rd highest of 156 Iowa cities with 80–180 people. The middle of the group is $10.26.

See all 156

#	Place	Rate per $1,000	People
1	Castana	$34.13	103
2	Brayton	$25.07	138
3	Hansell	$23.66	85
4	Harris	$23.13	145
5	Whitten	$22.65	98
6	Soldier	$21.92	176
7	Smithland	$21.12	184
8	Stanley	$20.69	86
9	Coin	$19.59	171
10	Rowan	$19.53	118
11	Chester	$19.30	134
12	Bouton	$19.25	125
13	Ricketts	$19.22	105
14	Garden Grove	$19.20	173
15	Hastings	$18.95	157
16	Grant	$18.71	82
17	Swaledale	$18.62	136
18	Derby	$18.13	89
19	Hillsboro	$17.68	158
20	Bristow	$17.39	139
21	Woolstock	$17.26	141
22	Monmouth	$16.41	129
23	Blockton	$16.37	123
24	Geneva	$16.25	137
25	Waterville	$16.25	112
26	Little Sioux	$15.74	170
27	Woodburn	$15.59	133
28	Kamrar	$15.47	178
29	Goodell	$15.16	139
30	Marne	$15.03	109
31	Baldwin	$14.91	99
32	Davis City	$14.45	178
33	Lucas	$14.40	176
34	Palmer	$13.89	137
35	Ayrshire	$13.55	128
36	Searsboro	$13.55	129
37	Ferguson	$13.53	98
38	Lanesboro	$13.53	112
39	Calumet	$13.16	144
40	Delaware	$12.86	139
41	Patterson	$12.84	176
42	Clemons	$12.69	135
43	Cylinder	$12.52	84
44	Millersburg	$12.40	135
45	Aurora	$12.40	165
46	Bridgewater	$12.29	145
47	Arion	$12.14	99
48	Webb	$12.10	139
49	Decatur	$12.08	174
50	Shambaugh	$11.98	161
51	Lone Rock	$11.92	143
52	East Peru	$11.89	119
53	Henderson	$11.85	140
54	Reasnor	$11.76	157
55	Morley	$11.74	94
56	Ledyard	$11.74	118
57	Toronto	$11.68	101
58	Exline	$11.60	157
59	Beaman	$11.54	155
60	College Springs	$11.44	172
61	Melrose	$11.27	110
62	Linn Grove	$11.15	155
63	Promise City	$11.13	91
64	Randolph	$11.08	183
65	Leighton	$11.07	153
66	Rake	$11.05	179
67	Masonville	$11.00	98
68	Somers	$10.99	121
69	Havelock	$10.95	127
70	Alexander	$10.90	165
71	Lambs Grove	$10.78	174
72	Wallingford	$10.75	154
73	Woden	$10.68	183
74	Pacific Junction	$10.56	99
75	Barnes City	$10.44	152
76	Stockton	$10.37	171
77	Randall	$10.35	156
78	Meriden	$10.28	175
79	Drakesville	$10.24	170
80	North Washington	$10.23	107
81	Dawson	$10.19	110
82	Hartwick	$9.90	91
83	Clare	$9.81	133
84	Tingley	$9.81	146
85	Rutland	$9.65	116
86	Van Wert	$9.62	175
87	Rock Falls	$9.61	143
88	Kirkville	$9.59	159
89	Superior	$9.58	127
90	Webster	$9.55	94
91	Martinsburg	$9.49	109
92	Larrabee	$9.41	116
93	Hamilton	$9.35	125
94	Wiota	$9.32	91
95	Floris	$9.29	119
96	Mitchell	$9.22	118
97	Westphalia	$9.18	133
98	Elberon	$9.16	178
99	Blairsburg	$8.93	175
100	Prairieburg	$8.91	156
101	Welton	$8.86	124
102	Archer	$8.84	116
103	Luther	$8.83	147
104	Fraser	$8.81	107
105	Macksburg	$8.81	103
106	Moorland	$8.61	169
107	Pilot Mound	$8.54	155
108	Thor	$8.38	182
109	Andover	$8.28	106
110	Thurman	$8.26	162
111	Boxholm	$8.11	177
112	Carpenter	$8.10	92
113	Rome	$8.10	112
114	Westfield	$8.10	121
115	Vincent	$8.09	125
116	Buckeye	$7.94	82
117	Morrison	$7.86	101
118	Mount Auburn	$7.86	162
119	Haverhill	$7.86	164
120	Oyens	$7.86	88
121	Olds	$7.86	174
122	Castalia	$7.86	141
123	Dickens	$7.86	146
124	Rose Hill	$7.86	156
125	West Chester	$7.82	147
126	Cromwell	$7.81	104
127	Mcclelland	$7.79	147
128	Arispe	$7.71	95
129	Luzerne	$7.69	111
130	Lidderdale	$7.68	162
131	Westwood	$7.67	96
132	Bernard	$7.56	117
133	Braddyville	$7.49	142
134	Franklin	$7.31	133
135	Spragueville	$7.20	92
136	Weldon	$7.18	134
137	Brunsville	$6.95	128
138	Zwingle	$6.93	86
139	Pleasant Plain	$6.79	83
140	Houghton	$6.73	129
141	Williamson	$6.72	126
142	Lincoln	$6.32	119
143	Tennant	$6.29	83
144	Gravity	$6.18	149
145	Ackworth	$5.90	117
146	Oakland Acres	$5.88	178
147	Springbrook	$5.79	145
148	Maysville	$5.77	155
149	Harper	$5.29	117
150	Panorama Park	$4.62	142
151	Keomah Village	$3.15	107
152	Mcintire	$2.78	115
153	Sherrill	$2.66	176
154	Centralia	$2.41	117
155	New Liberty	$2.27	141
156	North Buena Vista	$1.78	107

The $8.10 limit

Blockton’s general levy is $7.86 per $1,000 of taxable value in FY27, $0.24 below the limit.⁴ 596 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 $7.86 (before FY25, the general levy alone)

Outside the limit: $8.50 more⁵

Liability, property & self insurance costs$6.99 · $19,764
Total Employee Benefit Levies$1.51 · $4,266

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$22,22248%
Liability, property & self insurance costs$19,76443%
Total Employee Benefit Levies$4,2669%

Budget and spending

Reading a local budget

Where each dollar of Blockton’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 156 Iowa cities closest in size (80–180 people).

Where it goes	Of each dollar	Cities this size (156)
Public Works	29¢	27¢
General Government	27¢	25¢
Culture and Recreation	27¢	8¢
Public Safety	18¢	9¢
Community and Economic Development	<1¢	2¢

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$42,80935%
Public Works$38,28631%
Culture and Recreation$27,31322%
Public Safety$13,46711%
Community and Economic Development$1000%

Budget compared with what it spent, FY23

Function	Budget	Spent
Public Works	$114,584	$94,751
Public Safety	$12,755	$24,305
Health and Social Services	$0	$0
General Government	$27,500	$34,072
Debt Service	$0	$0
Culture and Recreation	$39,074	$38,655
Community and Economic Development	$4,200	$2,980
Capital Projects	$0	$0
Business Type / Enterprise	$0	$0

What it spent each year

FY24 left out⁶

$194,763

$131,187

Debt, reserves and audits

How local debt works · What an audit tells you

What Blockton owes

No debt at June 30, 2026.⁷

$27,710

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	$17,234	$138
2011	$22,572	$181
2010	$27,710	$222

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	$17,234	$138
2011	$22,572	$181
2010	$27,710	$222

Down 100% since 2010.

The 5% limit⁸

General obligation debt is $0, 0% of the limit of about $206,119 (5% of $4.1M, the full value of its taxable property in 2024).

Money in reserve

The state’s budget files don’t include cities’ fund balances⁹. Blockton’s latest audit has them: Periodic Examination, period ending Sunday, June 30, 2019 (PDF).

Audits¹⁰

The latest: Periodic Examination for the period ending Sunday, June 30, 2019 (PDF), released Tuesday, October 29, 2019, by the Auditor of State.

1 earlier report for Blockton

Financial Statement, period ending Saturday, June 30, 2012Friday, March 15, 2013

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? ¹¹

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: $14,662 in FY25, down 28% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 43% less. Grants are below.

Show the numbers

Source	FY22	FY23	FY24	FY25
Road Use Tax (streets)	$15,626	$14,149	$14,520	$14,599
Commercial and industrial tax replacement (“backfill”)	–	–	–	$63

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.

$917

Year	Grants and projects
FY19	$0
FY20	$917
FY21	$0
FY22	$0
FY23	$0
FY24	$0
FY25	$0

Show the numbers

Year	Grants and projects
FY19	$0
FY20	$917
FY21	$0
FY22	$0
FY23	$0
FY24	$0
FY25	$0

Has it kept up with prices?

Each source from FY19 to FY25, after inflation.

Road Use Tax (streets)−43%$20,453 → $14,599, down 29% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 43% 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 down 14% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 31% less.

$15,122

$13,014

Federal grants, for comparison: $41,731 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)¹².

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

Blockton City Council At-Large

3 seats: the top 3 win.

Steven Henson Winner2637.1%
Richard Brown Winner2535.7%
Tina Maxson Winner1927.1%

Blockton Mayor

Drexel Wall Unopposed8100.0%

Local races from civicAPI and county auditors for Blockton; 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.

Blockton City Council At-Large (2 seats)
Now held by John Cavin, Jodi Lawrence
Blockton Mayor
Now held by Drexel Wall

Candidates as county auditors and civicAPI list them; a filing can take a few days to appear here¹³.

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 ballot¹⁴.

Related places

At the Statehouse and in Congress¹⁵

Tom Shipley (Sen. 9)Devon Wood (Rep. 17)

U.S. House:District 3

Taylor County Bedford 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 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 Blockton; percentages are rough shares of its area. These lawmakers write the state laws and budget Blockton 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.

Blockton

Who runs it

Meetings and agendas

Property taxes

Who gets a property owner’s tax bill in Blockton

Rates over time

Compared with places this size3

The $8.10 limit

Outside the limit: $8.50 more5

The city’s levies, FY27

Budget and spending

Where each dollar of Blockton’s budget goes, FY26

Planned spending, FY27

What it spent each year

Debt, reserves and audits

What Blockton owes

The 5% limit8

Money in reserve

Audits10

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 Congress15

Compared with places this size³

Outside the limit: $8.50 more⁵

The 5% limit⁸

Audits¹⁰

At the Statehouse and in Congress¹⁵