Big E
Dec 20
Big E’s Big Mouth Substack

Property Tax Primer. By Zito for Idaho (12/18/24)

zitoforidaho.substack.c…

Senator-elect Christy Zito explains the convoluted world of Idaho property taxes, including why they have increased so massively — especially over the past decade. (We’ve added more tidbits, hoping we got it right — taxes are not our forte.)

Christy Zito says…

The Nanny state mentality is growing and causing the massive increases we see. We throw more and more state money at schools, and they continue to ask locally for more through bonds and levies. Development moves in, and those who have been here for generations are forced to pick up the burden of development.

Getting involved on a local level is how we stop the out-of-control spending on property taxes. At the State level, reviewing the budget cap and other methods may be needed...

Did you know?

  • Idahoans are being taxed out of their homes as property taxes rise and they no longer can afford to pay them.

  • The STATE GOVERNMENT CANNOT TAX THROUGH PROPERTY TAX; the State is run on taxes that are MOSTLY gathered through income and sales tax.

  • Property taxes support City and County operations (including Health Departments).

  • Most property taxes are collected through taxing districts, many of which the voters themselves requested.

  • The Idaho Taxing Commission GIS Taxing Districts Maps & Data page at apps2-tax.idaho.gov/i-1… lists 36 possibilities for taxing districts (we hope your tax bill doesn’t include all of these!):

    • Ambulance

    • Auditorium

    • Cemetery

    • City

    • City Bond

    • Community College

    • Community Infrastructure

    • County

    • Drainage

    • Fire

    • Fire Bond

    • Flood

    • Herd

    • Highway

    • Highway Bond

    • Hospital

    • Hospital Bond

    • Levee

    • Library

    • Library Bond

    • Mosquito Abatement

    • Pest Control

    • Port

    • Recreation

    • School

    • School Bond

    • Sewer

    • Sewer and Water

    • Solid Waste

    • State

    • Urban Renewal

    • Water

    • Water and Sewer Bond

    • Watershed

    • Weather Modification

    • Weed Control

  • "Homeowner Tax Relief" typically appears as a credit to your bill. But it’s really a sales tax shift, including grocery taxes.

  • Hospital systems, such as St. Luke’s and St. Alphonsus (St Al's), do not pay property taxes in Idaho.

ED NOTE
We hope legislators keep trying to remove tax exemptions for Idaho’s large hospital systems, especially given past abuses of citizens by some hospitals; extravagant payments to hospital executives and their law firms; and questionable procedures such as puberty blockers for children (stlukesonline.org/healt… and stlukesonline.org/commu…).

What can we do?

  • REDUCE the size of government and the many local taxing districts, bonds, and levies.

  • STOP asking the government to perform services that are not the proper role of government. Self-reliant citizens can do much to reduce the nanny state.

  • STOP creating new taxing districts. The more taxing districts, the more money property taxes will be.

  • AVOID duplicating services across taxing districts. Scrutinize carefully before asking for services already provided by other taxing districts.

  • REVIEW the budget cap, which limits counties and cities from increasing the budget by 3% above the highest budget from the past three years.

    • Most taxing districts like cities and counties automatically increase the maximum 3% every year. This doesn’t have to happen: they can review and do a 2%, 1%, or 0% increase.

Related:

Ammon Bundy says…Property tax is the most immoral of all taxes because it is the state's way of deifying itself by claiming that it owns everything, while forcing you to pay an annual tax on property that is supposed to be yours. But if you have to pay a tax on it forever, or it is taken away from you, then how is it actually yours?

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Dec 20
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