Russ Hendricks of the Idaho Farm Bureau said the indexing of the homeowner’s exemption has been a problem for his members. He spoke in support of HB 431, the Idaho Association of Realtors’ bill to remove the indexing and fix the exemption at a maximum of $100,000.

“Somebody pays that tax,” he said. “This is the classic definition of a property tax shift.”

Hendricks said, “The root cause of the problem is high taxes. We’re trying to exempt it away and shift it to somebody else. This bill isn’t going to address the problem either, but at least it’s going to avoid the shifting that’s taking place under our current system. … Indexing the homeowners exemption is constantly shifting taxes from one class of property owners to others.”

Hendricks said, “Land does not use libraries, land does not use schools.”