If you've watched the news this week, you probably saw a few stories around a property tax bill (Senate Bill 1108). While some of the headlines indicate opposition to property tax relief, the reality is an opposition to the proposed bill which we do not believe brings the meaningful property tax relief our community needs. Watch a press conference held by local leaders this week here.
Needless to say, property taxes are complicated. There's not a one size fits all approach that will satisfy everyone. What works for the Treasure Valley may be detrimental for rural parts of our state. Because of its complexity, I am advocating for collaborative and comprehensive tax reform.
Idaho's property taxes are controlled by three areas:
1) property's assessed value
2) homeowner's exemption (for primary residences only)
3) tax levy/budget (there are multiple levies in each district)
While the authority to change the formulas for your home's assessed value and the homeowner's exemption rest with the State Legislature, the City of Nampa controls the budget needed to provide critical city services such as public safety and streets. The City of Nampa has been one of the most fiscally conservative cities in Idaho. By state statute, we are allowed to increase our budget by 3% each year.
In an effort to help reduce the tax impact, the City of Nampa has not taken over $6,000,000 in allowed tax increases in recent years. To be clear, our current annual budget would be $6M higher than it currently is, so this is $6M of savings realized on a reoccurring, annual basis. Our residents have repeatedly charged us to exercise stewardship on taxes while also not compromising public safety and streets. We’ve worked hard at providing the most property tax relief possible while also not compromising our level of service. That’s a fine line we’re elected to navigate.
INCREASING THE HOMEOWNER'S EXEMPTION
Cities, citizens and some of our Senators and Representatives have asked the Legislature to consider increasing the homeowner's exemption, increase relief via the circuit breaker and consider a change in the state statute to limit the rapid increase in assessed values. No bills were allowed to be introduced to address these issues. Many Legislators say it’s just a tax shift.
In 2016 the Legislature put a cap on the homeowner’s exemption, which created a significant tax shift that is impacting our residential taxes today. This needs to be corrected. A group of citizens tried to get our legislators to bring a solution forward and it was denied.
While residents have experienced yearly increases in their property taxes due to rapidly increasing home values, the unintended consequence of capping the homeowner's exemption resulted in a tax shift and considerable burden to residential properties. We need to work together to correct this imbalance and fairly allocate property taxes for all taxpayers.
Our citizens deserve and expect elected officials to make wise financial decisions to accomplish the essential services our residents and businesses need. The City of Nampa will continue our dedication to fiscal stewardship and invite the public to join us in the budget process this spring. We look forward to working with legislators towards meaningful property tax reform and sincerely appreciate their service to our community.
-Mayor Debbie Kling
