Keough leads panel on property tax relief

BOISE – A joint legislative committee looking into property tax relief in Idaho will include four North Idaho lawmakers and will be co-chaired by Sandpoint Sen. Shawn Keough, legislative leaders decided Wednesday.

“I think it’s absolutely important to resolve this issue,” said House Speaker Bruce Newcomb, R-Burley. Having a broad geographic balance on the 14-member committee is essential to helping make sure its recommendations gain statewide support, he said.

Seats on the panel were hotly pursued by lawmakers, and it was the most sought-after of the six interim committees named Wednesday.

“I’ve got 34 members of the House that want to be on this committee,” said longtime Rep. Frances Field, R-Grand View.

Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, and Reps. George Sayler, D-Coeur d’Alene, and Eric Anderson, R-Priest Lake, were named to the panel along with Keough.

Senate President Pro Tem Bob Geddes, R-Soda Springs, said, “This obviously is becoming a big issue … especially in the north.”

Citizen groups already are looking into a possible initiative to limit property tax in the state after lawmakers this year sidelined eight different bills designed to provide property tax relief to homeowners. Coeur d’Alene Realtor Sharon Culbreth said Wednesday that the groups hope to have an initiative drafted and submitted to the state for review by mid-June. “It’s being drafted right now,” she said.

According to the state Tax Commission, residential property owners paid 59 percent of the property taxes collected in Idaho in 2003, up from 47.1 percent in 1990. During the same time period, nearly every other type of property, including commercial, agricultural, mining and utility property, saw its share fall.

Homeowners in fast-appreciating areas have been complaining that their taxes skyrocket just because someone new moves into the neighborhood and pays an unheard-of price for a neighboring home. Unless tax rates are lowered, higher values mean higher taxes.

Culbreth said, “Being in the business, I know how serious it is. … I just don’t like to see … people start being afraid to lose their homes. … That’s why I’m involved.”

Keough said she was “honored” to be named co-chair of the panel. “It is a huge task,” she said. “The work of this committee is very important.”

Goedde said, “It’s certainly an issue that needs to have attention, and this is the perfect forum for it.” He added, “It’s always good to, if you’re able to, be part of the solution, and that’s certainly what I’m going to attempt to do.”

Sayler said he heard from a constituent this week whose property taxes doubled in one year because of how her home was reassessed. “Here in Kootenai County, it’s a really serious concern,” he said. “I think we’ll come up with something the Legislature can enact, and that will be good for the citizens. I don’t want to do it piecemeal, I want to do something that’s really worthwhile.”

Sen. Mike Jorgenson, R-Hayden Lake, lobbied hard to get on the property tax committee, but ended up being named to the Energy and Technology study committee instead. That panel will be co-chaired by Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover.

Jorgenson, who sat through the Legislative Council meeting Wednesday at which the appointments were hashed out, left as soon as the names were announced. “We’re all elected, and we’ll do what we’re told,” he said.

Jorgenson said Goedde was chosen over himself and Sen. Dick Compton, R-Coeur d’Alene, because Goedde has long sponsored local-option tax bills aimed at property tax relief. “I think that’s a good move,” Jorgenson said.

Compton was named to an interim legislative committee to look into human trafficking, including concerns about young women being transported across Idaho for prostitution or forced marriages.

Sen. Joyce Broadsword, R-Sagle, was named co-chair of a committee to look into issues regarding elimination of cervical cancer; Broadsword was one of the main sponsors of the bill to create that committee.

Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow, won a coveted seat on a panel that will look into state employee compensation issues. Sen. Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow, will co-chair a task force on biotechnology issues, and both Schroeder and Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, will serve on an interim committee on natural resource and water issues.

Reps. Frank Henderson, R-Post Falls, and Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, both of whom made the property tax panel their top choice, were instead named to other committees. Nonini will serve on the energy and technology panel, and Henderson on the biotech task force.

“I thought about Henderson and Nonini, but you also had people that were senior to them that wanted to be on there,” Newcomb said. He said he tabbed Henderson for the biotech panel to represent the North Idaho College area, and thought Nonini could contribute to the energy panel.

“You’ve got to put people where you think they’re going to do the most good,” he said.

The property tax committee will hold hearings around the state, including in both Coeur d’Alene and Sandpoint, Newcomb promised.

The panel’s other members are: Rep. Dennis Lake, R-Blackfoot, who will share the chairmanship with Keough; Reps. Bill Deal, R-Nampa; Gary Collins, R-Nampa; Mike Moyle, R-Star; and Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum; and Sens. Tim Corder, R-Mountain Home; Monty Pearce, R-New Plymouth; Stan Williams, R-Pingree; David Langhorst, D-Boise; and Elliot Werk, D-Boise.