City

Ottumwa

$3,780 a yearproperty tax on a $200,000 home here, FY27, for every local government ($44.85 per $1,000 of taxable value)¹

$1,770 a yearof that goes to the city ($21.01 per $1,000)

$15.6Mproperty taxes the city levies, FY27

$45.6Mcity 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.

Benjamin FooteOttumwa Mayor · elected November 4, 2025
Cara GallowayOttumwa City Council At-Large · elected November 4, 2025
Dan ReidOttumwa City Council At-Large · elected November 4, 2025
JoElla DupreyOttumwa City Council At-Large · elected November 4, 2025
Bill Hoffman Jr.Ottumwa City Council At-Large · elected November 7, 2023
Keith D. CavinessOttumwa 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 Ottumwa

Homes and businesses in most of Ottumwa pay a combined $44.85 per $1,000 of taxable value (FY27). They pay it all to the Wapello County treasurer, who passes each government its share; the city sets and gets only its own piece, $21.01. Estimate your bill.

City of Ottumwa$21.0147%
Ottumwa schools$14.1632%
Wapello County$7.6417%
Indian Hills Community College$1.243%
Wapello County Assessor$0.591%
Wapello County Extension (ISU Extension and Outreach)$0.21<1%

Rates over time

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

Year	Combined	City’s own
FY20	$46.13	$22.46
FY21	$46.68	$22.46
FY22	$45.07	$22.22
FY23	$43.83	$21.22
FY24	$43.72	$21.20
FY25	$44.43	$20.81
FY26	$45.72	$20.99
FY27	$44.85	$21.01

Show the numbers

Year	Combined	City’s own
FY20	$46.13	$22.46
FY21	$46.68	$22.46
FY22	$45.07	$22.22
FY23	$43.83	$21.22
FY24	$43.72	$21.20
FY25	$44.43	$20.81
FY26	$45.72	$20.99
FY27	$44.85	$21.01

Compared with places this size³

Ottumwa’s city property tax rate of $21.01 per $1,000 is the 1st highest of 14 Iowa cities with 17,000–34,000 people. The middle of the group is $14.59.

See all 14

#	Place	Rate per $1,000	People
1	Ottumwa	$21.01	25,648
2	Fort Dodge	$20.89	24,886
3	Clinton	$16.80	24,118
4	Marshalltown	$16.25	27,886
5	Muscatine	$16.17	23,298
6	Burlington	$15.94	23,637
7	Coralville	$14.70	23,959
8	Mason City	$14.47	26,948
9	Waukee	$12.80	34,420
10	North Liberty	$11.84	21,904
11	Johnston	$11.39	25,022
12	Altoona	$10.75	22,598
13	Grimes	$10.70	17,266
14	Clive	$9.92	19,508

The $8.10 limit

Ottumwa’s general levy is $8.35 per $1,000 of taxable value in FY27, $0.25 above the limit; it has to come down in steps.⁴ 72 of 934 Iowa cities have a higher general levy. All cities.

$8.10

FY23 $8.10 · FY24 $8.10 · FY25 $8.52 · FY26 $8.52 · FY27 $8.35 (before FY25, the general levy alone)

Outside the limit: $12.66 more⁵

Total Employee Benefit Levies$7.71 · $5.7M
Debt Service Levy$4.06 · $3.2M
Liability, property & self insurance costs$0.89 · $650,925

Tax increment financing (TIF)

$33.5M of taxable value in Ottumwa is in TIF districts’ increment (4% of the city’s taxable value), 2025 valuations, taxed in FY27.⁶ It budgeted $1.5M in TIF revenue for FY25.

$1.8M

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 $567,617 of the city’s own.

Ottumwa schools$379,145
Wapello County$255,764

Year	TIF revenue
FY16	$911,459
FY17	$783,150
FY18	$781,931
FY19	$822,062
FY20	$791,195
FY21	$598,371
FY22	$484,111
FY23	$1.8M

Show the numbers

Year	TIF revenue
FY16	$911,459
FY17	$783,150
FY18	$781,931
FY19	$822,062
FY20	$791,195
FY21	$598,371
FY22	$484,111
FY23	$1.8M

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$6.1M39%
Total Employee Benefit Levies$5.7M36%
Debt Service Levy$3.2M20%
Liability, property & self insurance costs$650,9254%

Budget and spending

Reading a local budget

Where each dollar of Ottumwa’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 13 Iowa cities closest in size (17,000–34,000 people).

Where it goes	Of each dollar	Cities this size (13)
Business Type / Enterprise	28¢	30¢
Capital Projects	18¢	26¢
Public Safety	18¢	13¢
Public Works	15¢	5¢
Debt Service	7¢	11¢
Everything else	14¢	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.

Public Safety$13.6M30%
Public Works$10.7M23%
Capital Projects$7.3M16%
Debt Service$4.1M9%
Culture and Recreation$3.5M8%
General Government$3.1M7%
Health and Social Services$1.8M4%
Community and Economic Development$1.6M4%

The state’s FY27 file doesn’t include business type / enterprise yet ($19.9M in FY26), so this total is low.

Budget compared with what it spent, FY23

Function	Budget	Spent
Public Works	$9.2M	$9.5M
Public Safety	$10.3M	$10.5M
Health and Social Services	$954,545	$1.1M
General Government	$2.0M	$3.5M
Debt Service	$5.0M	$7.3M
Culture and Recreation	$4.4M	$3.5M
Community and Economic Development	$863,978	$1.5M
Capital Projects	$5.4M	$3.2M
Business Type / Enterprise	$16.1M	$14.3M

What it spent each year

FY24 left out⁸

$81.9M

Ottumwa’s own budget documents

The adopted budgets, resolutions and hearing notices the city posts, often weeks before the state publishes the figures. The city’s finance page

Debt, reserves and audits

How local debt works · What an audit tells you

What Ottumwa owes

$52.6M at June 30, 2026: $2,061 per resident. 377th most per resident of 939 Iowa places of its kind (the list).⁹

$53.1M

$52.6M

June 30	Owed	Per resident
2026	$52.6M	$2,061
2025	$53.1M	$2,079
2024	$32.8M	$1,285
2023	$38.9M	$1,524
2022	$45.6M	$1,784
2021	$41.5M	$1,624
2020	$38.6M	$1,512
2019	$32.3M	$1,265
2018	$30.2M	$1,182
2017	$33.5M	$1,313
2016	$30.7M	$1,204
2015	$35.3M	$1,382
2014	$31.4M	$1,231
2013	$27.5M	$1,078
2012	$28.4M	$1,114
2011	$29.7M	$1,164
2010	$28.7M	$1,125

Show the numbers

June 30	Owed	Per resident
2026	$52.6M	$2,061
2025	$53.1M	$2,079
2024	$32.8M	$1,285
2023	$38.9M	$1,524
2022	$45.6M	$1,784
2021	$41.5M	$1,624
2020	$38.6M	$1,512
2019	$32.3M	$1,265
2018	$30.2M	$1,182
2017	$33.5M	$1,313
2016	$30.7M	$1,204
2015	$35.3M	$1,382
2014	$31.4M	$1,231
2013	$27.5M	$1,078
2012	$28.4M	$1,114
2011	$29.7M	$1,164
2010	$28.7M	$1,125

Up 83% since 2010.

The 5% limit¹⁰

General obligation debt is $29.8M, 45% of the limit of about $66.4M (5% of $1.33B, the full value of its taxable property in 2024).

14 obligations at June 30, 2026

Kind	For	Paid off by	Owed
Revenue Bonds	SRF 2025 Sewer separation and infrastructure	2046	$15.0M
General Obligation	SERIES 2020	2040	$9.8M
General Obligation	Series 2021A	2040	$6.5M
General Obligation	2024 A Capital equipment and projects.	2037	$6.5M
Revenue Bonds	Sewer Separation Phase 3	2041	$3.6M
General Obligation	Series 2022A CLN - Improvements, capital purchases and economic development	2037	$2.0M
Revenue Bonds	Water Pollution Control "Facilities" Debt	2039	$2.0M
Revenue Bonds	Phase 5 Division 2 Sewer Separation	2034	$1.7M
General Obligation	Series 2019A	2029	$1.6M
General Obligation	SERIES 2020 REFINANCE	2033	$1.4M
General Obligation	Series 2021B (refinance of Kohl's)	2031	$790,000
Revenue Bonds	2024 B capital equipment	2029	$653,000
General Obligation	Series 2018	2028	$630,000
General Obligation	Series 2019B	2027	$550,000

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. Ottumwa’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, March 11, 2026, by a CPA firm.

10 earlier reports for Ottumwa

Financial Statement, period ending Sunday, June 30, 2024Tuesday, June 3, 2025
Financial Statement, period ending Friday, June 30, 2023Friday, May 10, 2024
Financial Statement, period ending Thursday, June 30, 2022Friday, March 31, 2023
Financial Statement, period ending Wednesday, June 30, 2021Thursday, January 6, 2022
Financial Statement, period ending Tuesday, June 30, 2020Monday, January 11, 2021
Financial Statement, period ending Sunday, June 30, 2019Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Financial Statement, period ending Saturday, June 30, 2018Thursday, December 27, 2018
Financial Statement, period ending Friday, June 30, 2017Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Financial Statement, period ending Thursday, June 30, 2016Tuesday, January 3, 2017
Financial Statement, period ending Tuesday, June 30, 2015Monday, December 28, 2015

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: $4.5M in FY25, up 38% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 10% more. Grants are below.

Show the numbers

Source	FY22	FY23	FY24	FY25
Road Use Tax (streets)	–	$3.5M	$3.3M	$3.6M
Commercial and industrial tax replacement (“backfill”)	–	$372,427	$873,180	$838,411

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.

$4.3M

$87,867

Money & Credits Refund$51,12958%
Other$23,16226%
State grants$12,72614%
Iowa Department of Natural Resources$8501%

Year	Grants and projects
FY19	$1.0M
FY20	$641,173
FY21	$1.7M
FY22	$4.3M
FY23	$475,204
FY24	$190,059
FY25	$87,867

Show the numbers

Year	Grants and projects
FY19	$1.0M
FY20	$641,173
FY21	$1.7M
FY22	$4.3M
FY23	$475,204
FY24	$190,059
FY25	$87,867

Has it kept up with prices?

Each source from FY19 to FY25, after inflation.

Road Use Tax (streets)−11%$3.2M → $3.6M, up 12% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 11% 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 42% since FY19 while prices rose 25%, so it buys 13% more.

$4.7M

$4.5M

Federal grants, for comparison: $2.1M in FY25.

Business awards

Every award statewide

State economic development awards

Community college new jobs training: 12 contracts since 1999 worth $5.5M, for 666 pledged jobs.

Awards 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

Ottumwa City Council At-Large

3 seats: the top 3 win.

Cara Galloway Winner1,42924.3%
JoElla Duprey Winner1,34522.9%
Dan Reid Winner1,31022.3%
Hector Hernandez 1,10918.9%
Ean B. Troester 68211.6%

Ottumwa Mayor

Benjamin Foote Winner1,29950.3%
Brenda Case 1,28449.7%

Local races from civicAPI and county auditors for Ottumwa; 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.

Ottumwa City Council At-Large (2 seats)
Now held by Bill Hoffman Jr., Keith D. Caviness

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

Cherielynn Westrich (Sen. 13)Hans C. Wilz (Rep. 25)

U.S. House:District 3

Wapello County Ottumwa 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 Ottumwa; percentages are rough shares of its area. These lawmakers write the state laws and budget Ottumwa 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.

Ottumwa

Who runs it

Meetings and agendas

Property taxes

Who gets a property owner’s tax bill in Ottumwa

Rates over time

Compared with places this size3

The $8.10 limit

Outside the limit: $12.66 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 Ottumwa’s budget goes, FY26

Planned spending, FY27

What it spent each year

Ottumwa’s own budget documents

Debt, reserves and audits

What Ottumwa 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

State economic development 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: $12.66 more⁵

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

The 5% limit¹⁰

Audits¹²

At the Statehouse and in Congress¹⁷