Logan Finney, Idaho Reports:

It’s that time of year again, with property tax bills arriving in mailboxes and the Associated Taxpayers of Idaho holding its annual conference this week — a place for deep dives into tax issues and state policy discussions. For several years, the event has featured a panel on property tax issues. But unlike in the past, this year policymakers actually had some results to look at after last session’s HB 292 directed state sales tax revenues toward local governments and school districts.

The policy appears to be working, sponsors said this week, with reductions of property taxes up to 15-20% in many counties. Tax committee chairmen Rep. Jason Monks and Sen. Doug Ricks as well as House Speaker Mike Moyle and Sen. C. Scott Grow said on a panel that their constituents are pleased with the legislation’s results, but it’s still not a silver bullet to address property tax issues in the long term.

Property Tax Issues Panel

Sen. C. Scott Grow, R-Eagle:

Actually, at this meeting a year ago, I was standing over there next to that wall, and two of you that are here in this room today were visiting and said, ‘We’ve just got to do something about it.’ Now at the time, we had no idea who was going to be the head of any committees because we didn’t know who was going to be elected, etc. But I did know that Mike Moyle would be around.

House Speaker Rep. Mike Moyle, R-Star:

It’s cold enough today that the local governments have their hands in their own pockets and not the state’s. [crowd laughter] One of my concerns as we talked about this property tax issue is the state of Idaho currently subsidizes more than a billion dollars for local taxing districts. But our citizens keep complaining about property taxes.

Rep. Jason Monks, R-Meridian:

When your property taxes increase by 50-60%, it’s an issue for you, and we wanted to address that. One thing I think that’s really important — that I don’t think anybody here on the panel wanted to do — was to shift it to somebody else, which is what I think was the other option. ‘Let’s just shift it to somebody else, let’s have somebody else pay that,’ but we didn’t want to do that. And so, when I was looking at it, focusing on the school side of that, was because again, as the Speaker says, we don’t collect them and we don’t spend them. But we do have a role in the education side of it. That’s what our constitutional requirement is, providing this education. But so, where is the state’s responsibility? And buildings is where I kind of landed on that, and not just me here. This is the Legislature, at least on the House side, that supported that idea, that this is a place that we could do a better job on the state side, and with that we can address property tax at the same time.

Moyle:

People are happy. We did a good job. But at the same time, those budgets continue to grow. It was what, 3.6% overall statewide. Some have been really good. Some actually went down. Camas County went down like 13% countywide. Canyon County went up 15% — I haven’t figured out how they got that done, but I will eventually. But as we look to try to solve the problem, we took more ongoing revenues from the sales tax and sent it back for relief. And that’s a good thing, and people are happy, and we put in a mechanism to do more relief in the future, especially on the school side. But my friends, the state of Idaho cannot continue to do this.

Looking Ahead

IR:

While the legislative session doesn’t officially get started for at least another month, the ATI conference is often just one item on lawmakers’ agendas as they prepare for the upcoming session. I spoke with Rep. Ned Burns and Sen. Ben Adams — each of whom sits on their respective chamber’s tax committees — about how they’re getting ready for January and what topics they expect to come up in the next legislative session.

Rep. Ned Burns, D-Bellevue:

We got our property tax bill for this year. You know, it came when I was on the way over here [to Boise] so I haven’t had a chance to look yet. But from what I’ve been hearing from folks across the state so far, it seems to be in that kind of very high teens to mid-twenties percentage decrease from last year. So, a lot of folks are super pleased.

If the revenues are there, then it flows into that bucket for property tax relief. Now, if we start to have some down years, then that amount of annual relief is going to decrease relative to what it was the previous year.

Sen. Ben Adams, R-Nampa:

You know, we’re all prepping for the next session, trying to have our legislation ready whatever it’s going to be. And making sure that whatever issues that we’re tackling, we’ve dotted all of our I’s and crossed all of our T’s.

I think we’ll see school choice, obviously. Some different tax proposals, some critiques to the Certified Organic program in the agriculture department. And those are just a list, you’re going to see a litany of legislation. That is the fun part about this time of year, is nobody knows fully what they’re going to see when they get in there. But it has been good to hear from other legislators and see them actively working on building coalitions for their legislation. Sometimes I agree with it, sometimes I don’t. But I’ll tell them.

Burns:

We [in the Democratic caucus] will be particularly concerned with how public libraries are handled this year. We continue to have some school facilities funding concerns. I think from the tone of this conference, the Associated Taxpayers of Idaho conference, it sounds like we’re probably fairly good on tax policy, although we could continue to do maybe some light tweaks on property tax relief.

Adams:

You know, being on the tax policy committee, hearing what these folks have to say is very insightful. We obviously get a ton of information through the year, but coming here and meeting with these people that are — and have been, for a very long time — engaged in tax policy in Idaho, gives us a leg up and a lot of institutional knowledge over the last — what, I guess since 1946 is what they said [when ATI was founded]. So, quite a long time of working on tax policy here in Idaho. And I think that’s a good thing to have in your back pocket.

There is no off season for legislators if we’re doing it right. So, we’re going out. This year, I spent a ton of time with Parks and Rec, with the water users on different water issues, so traveled around the state because I sit on a committee that deals with those issues, and those issues are very important to the state of Idaho. So, I’m doing my job being knowledgeable on what the issues are. And the more you know, the more you realize you don’t know.

Burns:

It’s been busy. A lot of meetings. A lot of tours. You know, I had several meetings with state agencies yesterday, kind of in advance of next session, what they’re working on, what some of their priorities are going to be, how we can best keep moving Idaho ahead.

IR:

Any particular agencies or issues you’re focusing on?

Burns:

I’ll still be really concerned a lot with Fish and Game, and with Agriculture particularly related to following up on quagga mussels some more.

Adams:

Myself, I have a piece of legislation called Defend the Guard that I’ll be bringing. It’s probably the most simple legislation out there. The state National Guard belongs to the states, always has. And this legislation simply says until Congress formally declares war, you can’t send our guys into combat zones. That doesn’t mean we can’t be support, doesn’t mean we can’t go overseas. What it means is if you’re sending us into Syria, if you’re sending us in Ukraine, if you’re sending us into Israel, that’s a no-go from the state of Idaho until Congress decides to actually take the steps that will get us in a position where, legally, we are in the right.

Burns:

We get a list of invitations for particular user groups that are concerned about this issue or that issue. And then we always meet with all the state agencies, and then you know, definitely a lot of constituent concerns that we deal with, and probably email or phone is the most common way. Sometimes some texts, if they really know me.

IR:

Well, that’s the citizen legislature, right?

Burns:

That’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. And the citizens are super lucky that, you know, they get this level of ability to interact directly with us. We are one of the very few state legislatures that if you call, we answer the phone, not our staff answers the phone.

Adams:

For the folks listening, if you have an opportunity, if you liked the concept that I pitched with Defend the Guard, please feel free to reach out to your legislator and let them know how you feel about it.