The Nov. 22 Idaho Mountain Express article discussing property taxes cited "... removal of the public school maintenance and operation budgets from the property tax roll ..." as contributing to property tax decreases in Blaine County. I wish to explain how the item was not removed and how it served to actually increase our property taxes for 2006.
Prior to enactment of the Property Tax Relief Act of 2006 in August, Idaho Code Section 33-802 authorized an optional "Maintenance and Operation" property tax levy of up to .3 percent against taxable value (the max levy being $300 per $100,000 of value) to fund school operating expenses. The maximum amount of this optional levy thus increased, without voter approval, consistent with property value increases. The Property Tax Relief Act amended 33-802 by capping the levy amount to $29.5 million in the case of Blaine County, and renaming it the "Budget Stabilization" levy.
The levy authorized by 33-802 for 2005 has a rate of .00255, which is included with other rates on the line item of my tax bill named "SCHOOL DIST #61." The levy authorized by 33-802 for 2006 is separately stated as "STABILIZATION" on my 2006 bill with a rate of .00251, indicating a 1.6 percent decrease.
I know. Figures in narrative format aren't fun, but I need a few more to make my point: The total amount levied by Blaine County in 2005 per 33-802 was $24.9 million, while the 2006 levy amount per 33-802 is $29.5 million. Thus, if all other factors had remained constant, my 2006 levy rate per 33-802 would have been .00302, which equates to a tax increase of $47 for each $100,000 of taxable valuation.
But other factors didn't remain constant, and my 2006 taxes decreased. More figures: 2006 taxable assessed values in Blaine County increased 20 percent from 2005 while my assessed value remained constant. Conclusions: My taxes tended to increase because of the levy permitted by Idaho Code 33-802 (M&O—Stabilization), and tended to decrease by a larger amount because the taxable value of my property relative to all county values decreased by 17 percent.
For those interested, I will e-mail the Property Tax Relief Act in Microsoft Word format and computations of the above figures. E-mail your request to correctinfo@cox.net.
Bruce Norvell
Hailey
