It’s budget season for Idaho cities. Here’s who is raising property taxes and who isn’t
Local governments in the Treasure Valley have just finished setting their budgets for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, and one thing is clear: The property taxes you owe to some taxing jurisdictions will almost certainly rise.
Some city and county leaders say they must impose the maximum annual increase in property taxes allowed by state law just to keep up with rising costs and needs, although other jurisdictions aren’t taking all or any of the allowable increase.
Some mayors say their cities might have gotten by with less if not for a state law enacted last year whose goal was to reduce property taxes. The mayors of fast-growing Kuna and Star say that law had the perverse effect of shifting taxes away from properties just added to the tax rolls and onto longtime taxpayers.
More on that at the bottom of this article. For now, here’s what Ada and Canyon counties and their eight largest cities will be doing to your tax bill. Ada County is listed first, with its cities in order of decreasing population. Canyon County follows.
Ada County: $41 more
The commissioners elected to not take any of the allowable property tax increase in the $342 million budget, which includes funds for each of the county’s departments, including the sheriff’s office and jail.
By electing to not take the 3%, the county has banked $4.4 million for potential use in a future year, according to the county’s budget book. That’s because state law allows local governments that forgo tax increases to go back and collect them in later years.
But average homeowners will still see a rise in taxes as property values go up. A median home in Ada County — valued at $471,563, an increase of about $70,000 over last year — will pay $580.68 in property taxes to the county, according to the Ada County Clerk’s Office. That’s an increase of $40.48 over last year.
The increase is partly a result of the continuing shift of taxes from commercial properties to homeowners.
Republican Commissioners Rod Beck and Ryan Davidson voted for the budget. Democrat Kendra Kenyon was not present.
Beck said the budget “continues with the good work of the citizens of Ada County to keep them safe and to provide the public services that are necessary.”
“The public hasn’t shown up with torches and pitchforks, so that’s always a good sign,” Davidson said.
ACHD: $101 more
The Ada County Highway District Commission voted unanimously to approve a $181.6 million budget. Of that, $46.3 million will come from property taxes, including an increase of $1.2 million on new construction.
Like the county commissioners, ACHD’s commissioners chose not to take any of the 3% allowable increase.
Regardless, taxes will go up. For a home assessed at $500,000 last year, the homeowner had to pay $163 in taxes. This year, based on the increase in assessed values, that homeowner would have to pay about $264.
“With the climate and everything everybody is facing out there, with the cost of living ... I would not be in support of taking the property tax this year,” Commission President Mary May said.
During the Aug. 3 commission meeting, the commissioners appeared split on taking the 3% increase. Commissioner Dave McKinney said it’s “always politically difficult” to raise taxes, but the cost of maintaining roads has been affected by inflation just like many other things.
The budget includes $80 million for more than 100 projects and $14 million for pedestrian and bikeway improvements.
Boise: $129 more
Boise is raising property taxes by 2.45% for its $306 million budget as it raises wages for city employees and focuses on city growth, affordable housing and climate change.
At a budget workshop meeting in June, the City Council discussed how fast-rising property values are affecting homeowners, whether or not the city increases taxes.
Because of rising assessed values and a shift in the tax burden from commercial to residential property, the average Boise homeowner would see a $91.30 rise in taxes even if the city didn’t increase taxes at all, according to Eric Bilimoria, the city’s budget manager.
Raising taxes by the 3% allowed under Idaho law along with rising property values would have resulted in a tax increase on the average home of $137.65, Bilimoria said. The portion of that attributable to the 3% increase would be $46.35.
Taking 2.45% shaves off $8.50 for the average homeowner, for an average tax of $37.85. Including property value increases, the average tax increase will be $129.15.
“At some point, it’s going to be very difficult for people to make those payments and hang on to their homes,” Bilimoria said.
At the June meeting, Boise Mayor Lauren McLean said she was concerned about how the shift from commercial to residential taxes will affect Boiseans.
“We need residents to not have to be expected to subsidize commercial,” McLean said. “We need to stop that shift that we’ve seen so drastically.”
She also said she wants the Legislature to index the homeowner’s exemption to property values, which would provide relief to homeowners.
Under a new law passed this year, Boise’s budget also includes $1.2 million in planned tax rebates for low-income, qualifying residents.
The council passed the budget ordinance Tuesday night. ”It invests in community priorities, including public safety, economic development, affordable housing, and it uses our recovery dollars to help prepare for growth in this community and to take climate action,” McLean said Tuesday.
Meridian: No estimate
The Meridian City Council passed a $133 million budget and took the entire 3% allowable property tax increase.
The budget includes a substantial increase in wages to staff two new police and fire stations. The $133 million budget is a 26% decrease from last year, when the expenses for capital improvements like new parks and the police and fire stations were higher.
The city revenue was $136.4 million last year, but Meridian only plans to spend $133 million. Why keep the $3 million in its “piggy bank?” Councilman Luke Cavenar wondered.
During early budget hearings in July, Cavenar said, he asked the mayor to find a use for the $3 million, but nothing changed. Typically there is a project or something for the city to fund with that extra revenue, Cavenar said by phone.
“I’ve struggled with supporting a budget that continues to take the 3% property tax increase until we have acknowledged what we’re going to do with that ($3 million),” Cavenar said during the final budget hearing on Tuesday, Aug. 16. “Meridian residents, we see the cost of groceries, of our utilities ... going up. We are likely headed into a recession, and to me I do not think that now is the right time for us to be increasing taxes while we continue to have ($3 million) sitting in our piggy bank.”
Eagle: No estimate
The Eagle City Council passed a $60.4 million budget that takes the full 3% property tax increase, Mayor Jason Pierce said by phone.
The city will levy $4.4 million in property taxes, its budget document said.
Next year’s budget is a 2% increase over this year’s, the budget document said.
Kuna: No estimate
The Kuna City Council passed a $29.2 million budget for fiscal year 2023, with the 3% property tax increase, Mayor Joe Stear said.
The city will levy $4.1 million property tax dollars, according to its budget book.
Stear, in an email, said taxes are increasing because of inflation and the property tax law that placed caps on city budgets.
Star: $31 more
The Star City Council passed a $14 million budget for fiscal year 2023 on Tuesday, Aug. 2. The budget includes $1.7 million in property taxes.
The city is taking none of the 3% property tax increase.
The property tax law caps the amount of new construction cities are able to take at 8%. Star has enough new construction that it is increasing the property tax levy amount by 8%, all through new construction, according to the city’s draft budget.
Trevor Chadwick, the mayor of Star, said during the hearing that Star levies an average of $105.19 each year per resident. He compared the Star average to Eagle, which levies $123, he said, and Boise that levies $689.
“We have been fiscally conservative and have kept our property taxes low,” Chadwick said.
The property tax bill for a $643,000 home in Star would be $305, according to the city. The property tax bill for a $927,600 home would be $473.11.
Last year the tax bill for a $643,000 home was $317 and the bull for a $927,600 was $441, according to the city.
Garden City: No estimate
Garden City elected to take the full 3% increase to fund its $10.6 million budget.
The city’s payroll costs have increased 6%, and general operating costs and inflation explain why the city decided to take the full allowable amount, Mayor John Evans told the Statesman.
“We can thank the inflation monster,” Evans said by phone. Without 6% increases in wages, Evans said, “you won’t have anybody here to do the public’s business.”
Last year, Garden City budgeted $9.2 million for the city’s general fund budget. Evans was first elected in 2005, and he said Garden City has chosen to take the 3% increase most years that he’s been mayor.
Evans said the impact of the rising taxes on individual property owners can vary, and that the 3% increase does not mean a homeowner’s taxes will go up 3%. A fast-growing residential market has meant the property tax burden in the Treasure Valley has shifted heavily away from commercial property.
Canyon County: No estimate
For the second year in a row, Canyon County did not take any of its 3% property tax increase.
County commissioners voted 2-1 on Aug. 19 to approve the $132 million budget, of which $40 million comes from property taxes , according to Zach Wagoner, Canyon County controller. That is $14 million less than the property taxes in the 2022 budget.
The county is in good financial shape, said Joe Decker, county spokesperson, so the county is drawing $14 million from its fund balance to save residents the $14 million in property taxes.
“We understand that people are struggling with increased values and inflation, and we wanted to do what we could at the county level to provide meaningful property tax relief to our taxpayers,” Decker said in an email.
How much relief is not yet clear. The Canyon County Assessor’s Office could not confidently calculate how much the property tax burden would be on an average home in Canyon County, Decker said. None of the city or county levy rates have been certified yet, he said.
One of the main topics during budget hearings was a wage increase for workers. The commissioners elected to decrease the increases from the original $12,000 per year. But the wage increase has not yet been determined. The commissioners are scheduled to pass a resolution with the increase in the second or third week of September, Decker said.
Clerk Chris Yamamoto, whose office prepared the budget, criticized the Idaho Legislature’s inaction on property tax relief. He called for a bill that would address the heavy burden of taxes that fall on residential properties rather than commercial properties. Almost 75% of the entire property tax burden falls on residents, Decker said.
“Those factors helped lead to the decision to cut our property tax request,” he said.
Nampa: No estimate
The Nampa City Council approved a $285 million budget Aug. 15, a 2.9% increase over the 2022 budget, said Doug Racine, Nampa’s director of finance.
The city will take 2.52% of the allowable 3% property tax increase.
Nampa was hamstrung this year by a 2021 property tax law that caps the money local governments can take from new construction, annexation and the 3% property tax increase, at 8%. The city’s budget book says that new construction and annexation values totaled $529.4 million, and the city would have been able to bring in $2.3 million. Because of the law, the city is able to collect only $225,604, the budget book said.
The Nampa tax-levy rate is set to decrease this year. The estimated levy rate is 0.002908341, down from this year’s 0.00426122, Bowman said. That’s a decline of nearly one-third.
But home values in Nampa are up almost 50% from last year, so some Nampans could still see taxes increase because of their valuations despite the lower tax rate.
Caldwell: No estimate
The city will take the full 3% property tax increase, said Angie Point, deputy city clerk.
Caldwell increased its budget for the next fiscal year by 13.7% to $36.2 million. About $16.6 million of that is property tax revenue.
The increase is due to new positions in the city, police and fire departments, wage increase and fuel costs.
How to calculate your property tax
Want to dig in and estimate your actual taxes yourself?
Idaho homeowners can use a state tool to estimate their tax bills. Go to tax.idaho.gov/i-1072.cfm
To learn more, visit the Idaho State Tax Commission’s “Understanding Property Tax” page.
How 2021 Idaho property tax law affects cities
Idaho cities have now spent two budget cycles grappling with a law the Legislature passed in 2021 as an attempt to reduce property taxes.
The law caps the money local governments can spend. The law placed an 8% overall limit on annual local government budget increases, including amounts from the traditional 3%, plus a new 80% cap on the tax revenue governments can budget to spend from annex/ed properties newly added to tax rolls, and a 90% cap on spending from tax revenue from new construction once it is added to the rolls.
The owners of newly annexed land and newly built buildings pay the same taxes as everyone else, but the law prohibits cities from tapping their full potential value.
Throughout the hearings about the bill and in the year since it passed, local mayors have said the law did not bring property tax relief to residents and instead hamstrung cities, often forcing them to take the 3% property tax increase because they can only take 80% from annexations and 90% from new construction.
Eagle and Kuna took the full 3% property tax increase this year in part for that reason, their mayors said. In cities where population growth is skyrocketing and new construction happens every day, limiting the amount of revenue cities can take from that leaves them needing more to fund the services new neighborhoods demand.
Homeowners and commercial-property owners will see these higher taxes on consolidated bills mailed by county treasurers in November and due in December.
Homeowners with mortgages typically have their tax bills folded into their monthly mortgage payments. Their lenders boost the amounts due each month when needed to cover the higher estimated costs.
Business and Local Government Editor David Staats contributed.
This story was originally published September 3, 2022 at 4:00 AM.
CORRECTION: City of Nampa spokesperson Amy Bowman did not say many homeowners’ city taxes would fall as a result of Nampa’s reduction in its property-tax levy rate in tax bills this November. An earlier version of this story misstated her comments.
