Property Tax Fairness
My colleagues and I have been calling voters in District 19 to talk about the issues that matter most to them. A consistent concern is the dramatic rise in PROPERTY TAXES in the past few years.
How We Got Here
In 1983 the voters of Idaho passed an initiative called the “50-50” exemption, which created a tax exemption for residential property and capped it at $50,000 or 50 percent of the value of the home, whichever was less. That amount remained unchanged from 1983 until 2006, when legislators voted to increase the exemption to $75,000 adjusting for inflation; they also added an indexing mechanism that would allow the exemption to rise with the value of your property.
In 2016 when the exemption was going to go above $100,000, GOP lawmakers voted to cap the exemption at $100,000 and removed the index. I was a member of the House at that time and fought against that move because we knew what it would do to our constituents.
The Results - Unfair and Dramatic Increase in Property Taxes
When my GOP colleagues capped the exemption at $100,000, the tax liability substantially shifted from commercial and agricultural real estate to residential. According to Ada County Assessor in his interview on Idaho Matters, commercial and other properties were paying about 45% of the taxes in 2016 and residential properties responsible for about 55% of the bill. Now, homeowners pay about 70%! That's just not fair.
Bottom Line Solutions for Property Taxes
● Readjust the homeowners exemption, remove the cap, and put the index in place so the exemption increases with the value of your home.
● Growth should pay for itself. Collect impact fees on new development instead of passing the buck onto existing homeowners to foot the bill for roads and schools with endless levies. Growth should pay for itself.
● Increase property tax assistance for seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities, which hasn't been adjusted since 2006.
Unfortunately, these proposals have been rejected by the Republican supermajority in past sessions, but we will not stop fighting for fairness for all of our citizens.
I hope you will vote for me for the Idaho Senate, Rep Nechochea and Chris Mathias for the Idaho House. We will do all we can to bring your concerns to the legislature and represent fairness and equity.
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