Idaho House speaker protests his family’s property tax values. Here’s why
Mike Moyle, longtime Idaho representative and current House speaker, had a problem.
When property assessment notices went out in June, his family’s land in Star, near the intersection of State Street and Idaho 16, had skyrocketed in value — for one parcel of land, the assessed value went from $18,000 to over $2.7 million.
Property taxes at a value of $18,000 would be less than $100 but would balloon to $10,000, based on the 2025-2026 levy rate.
The reason? Moyle’s family had been working on potential development plans, prompting the Ada County Assessor’s Office to visit the area and see if the previous designations (agriculture for some parts and waste in others) still held true. The Assessor’s Office concluded that they didn’t. So Moyle’s mother appealed to the Ada County Board of Commissioners, where the Moyles prevailed on some parcels but were overruled on others.
On the southern portion, near an Ada County paramedic station, the Assessor’s Office said overhead photography showed no agricultural use. The office labeled the land as raw development ground. On the northern portion, the Assessor’s Office contended that a private lake was complete, and the Moyles had put in infrastructure improvements, such as a residential road, sidewalks and electrical boxes. The assessor’s office listed the parcels as development land.
“That’s not even cool,” Moyle said during a hearing in late June.
In a tense, drawn-out county meeting on Thursday, Moyle, himself, and the Assessor’s Office battled over what the land was used for.
Kathlynn Ireland, assistant chief deputy for the Assessor’s Office, told the Ada County Board of Commissioners that the Moyle family had called to discuss the appeal in late June. Moyle “admitted he had not planted any crops,” she said.
“He then asserted that he would plant corn on the proposed residential lots,” Ireland said. “Now, almost July, in one of the driest water years on record, only because of this appeal, telling us that the corn would be in by the end of the week.” (Moyle said sweet corn was planted throughout the year.)
At another point in the hearing, Moyle criticized the valuation, saying he was “laughing” when he was looking at it.
“Somebody’s smoking something that ain’t legal,” Moyle said. “It just made no sense to me.”
Property valuations are part of what determines how much property taxes someone pays. Each taxing district (think the county, city or school district) has a levy rate, which is multiplied by the taxable land value.
Moyle has been a staunch crusader for tax cuts in Boise pretty much since he first stepped foot in the Capitol after his 1998 election win.
He wrote the infamous House Bill 389 in 2021, a property tax bill, criticized by Gov. Brad Little at the time, that limited budget increases related to new construction and annexation, according to previous Statesman reporting.
Ever since, municipal leaders, including in Ada County, have griped about how state actions have trickled down to local governments.
During Thursday’s hearings, Moyle explained that on the southern portion of his property, the Idaho Transportation Department’s work on the surrounding roadways had disrupted his operations, preventing him from letting the animals out to graze. But his intent was to bring the cattle back once he could and that crops didn’t have to be growing for the ground to be considered agricultural. Land could be in a crop retirement or rotation program, Moyle said.
Once the cows were back, the agricultural designation could be reinstated, the Assessor’s Office argued. But it’s not a default label, Ireland told the commissioners. “You must earn the agricultural use,” she said.
The commissioners sided with Moyle. There were good arguments on both sides, Commissioner Ryan Davidson said, but they had precious little legal guidance to refer to when a state project interferes with someone’s desired land use. Davidson and Commissioner Tom Dayley both pointed to Moyle’s intent to bring the cows back.
Things weren’t so simple on the northern side of the property. The Assessor’s Office considered the plots agricultural in the past, but the Moyles have been working on a plan for a potential development. Once the Moyles record what is called a “final plat,” the property would become a residential subdivision with nine half-acre lots surrounding a private lake, Ireland said in an email.
Moyle said nothing had changed from the year before, arguing that the land should be considered agricultural and waste.
“The lake’s done. It’s all waste. It’s a depleted gravel pit and the corn’s planted back in there. It’s now agriculture,” Moyle said.
He kept coming back to a portion of state code that says just because someone is planning a potential development on agricultural land, doesn’t necessarily mean they lose the agricultural designation.
But after repeating it three times, Dayley asked him to read the next sentence of code: “If the land otherwise qualifies for the exemption.”
“Which it does,” Moyle said.
“I think that’s the operative part there, though,” Dayley replied. “If it qualifies.”
The commissioners ultimately agreed with the Assessor’s Office, though there’s a way for the Moyles to appeal to either the Idaho Board of Tax Appeals or the district court, Ireland said in an email.
“You’ll get another big bite at the apple,” Commissioner Rod Beck said.
Moyle’s family on June 30 also appealed the value of a parcel with a run-down, vacant house. The commissioners removed the $51,000 value of the home entirely.
On July 6, the commissioners heard Moyle’s appeal on the valuation of his storage business. The commissioners decided to return to the 2025 value.
