Stevens letter: Homeowners exemption
Astounding. Conservative Republicans voting to raise your taxes. (Statesman, March 1, page 7A)
Who? Mike Moyle (Star), Heather Scott (Blanchard), Don Cheatham (Post Falls), Ron Mendive (Coeur d’Alene), Vito Barbieri (Dalton Gardens), Brent Crane (Nampa), Tom Loertscher (Iona), Pete Nielsen (Mountain Home) and Janet Trujillo (Idaho Falls).
They all voted to cap the Homeowners’ Exemption. (HE).
If this bill passes, the HE is expected to be capped at $200,000 (now $189,400) next year. After that, inflation continues, the HE will be eroded and therefore your taxes will be raised. The Idaho State Tax Commission (ISTC) says it will amount to $10 million, or 2.2 percent tax increase every year beginning in 2018. (Rather clever waiting till 2018 — gives voters plenty of time to forget before the next election.)
It won’t bring one dime to Idaho’s schools, counties or cities. This is a tax shift — homeowners pay more, landlords, farmers, commercial businesses and industry pay less. By 2028, Idaho’s homeowners will be paying $100 million more in property taxes.
I bet no legislator who voted for this bill made any serious attempt to inform their districts how they voted.
What happened to “transparency?”
Pretty sneaky way to slip in a tax raise, if you ask me.
Jack Stevens, Boise
This story was originally published March 17, 2016 at 11:51 PM with the headline "Stevens letter: Homeowners exemption."