LET’S LOOK AT Property assessments and taxes

You may have noticed an increase in your property assessment. We’ve had a lot of growth. This has created a very tight housing market which has caused our home prices to go up dramatically. That’s nice if you want to sell your home but what if you want to stay in your home? Will the increase in home valuation make your property taxes do the same? In other words, will your property taxes skyrocket? The answer to that is thankfully, no. How is that possible? Idaho is different, in many ways. Our property taxes are levy based, not rate based.

Will my property tax skyrocket?

Most of us are accustomed to a rate-based system where your property value assessment directly determines your property tax. This is not how Idaho does it. Idaho uses a levy-based system in which the budgets of the various taxing entities control your tax rate. The various taxing entities are listed on your assessment and will include your county, fire, waste, schools, and more. All these budgets are lumped together and all the assessments are lumped together to get our taxing rate (all taxing entities budgets ÷ all assessed properties) = X. This number is then used to calculate your property tax (X x property assessment = your property tax).

You are protected from large increases

Idaho has limited the amount each taxing entity’s budget can increase. It’s just 3%. This is great but there is a problem. Growth. Up till now Kootenai county has not imposed impact fees on new construction. This means many of our infrastructure needs for new growth is not being met by newcomers. Everyone is having to pay for the cost of new growth. Also, when inflation hits, it hurts our taxing entities. They are on a fixed budget and will not be able to cover the additional costs brought on by inflation and growth. Not enough money means you will see services cut or much needed repairs to go undone. There is a fix but it has to be approved by the voters. Which brings us to our next topic: Levies and Bonds.

Levies and bonds are not the same

To compensate for much needed revenue to cover increasing costs the various taxing entities can request needed funds from the voters either through levies or bonds or both. Levies and bonds differ. Levies pay for maintenance and operations and bonds basically pay for buildings (remodel, repair or new). These requests are not frivolous and when they are put on the ballot they are truly needed.

When you go to the voting poles you participate in your community’s needs. There you can make the positive impact. If you don’t your community will continue to suffer. Levies and bonds are asked for when dire need is already present. If you would like to learn more about school levies and bonds I have created a separate post you can check out. 

So there you have it: a brief primer on property assessments, property taxes, bonds, levies and even a bit on impact fees. Hope this helped.

Links to discover how YOU will be affected

• To find your estimated property assessment start here.
• Click here to find your estimated property tax (to be made available soon according to their site)
• Learn about levy-based systems.
• Where your Kootenai County tax dollars go