Dan Bloxsom of the Idaho Association of Counties told the Senate Tax Committee on HB 431, the bill to remove indexing from the homeowners exemption, “Over time, this will end up in a net tax shift.” He said, “If the Legislature is uncomfortable with this housing price index, we have a couple of ideas … maybe putting in a sunset. … Or just put in a clause that requires the Legislature to revisit this every now and then, just so that we don’t have a blank spot of 20-some years where it’s left and then more or less forgotten. Because whatever the number is … if we leave it there, there will be a tax shift.”

Latah County Assessor Pat Vaughan said what he’s observed in his county, where the average home sale price is $219,000, is different from what bill sponsor John Eaton of the Idaho Association of Realtors described to the committee; Eaton told the panel that the indexing meant higher taxes for homeowners during the recession, when they could least afford it. Vaughn said in his county, the indexed exemption was a “very significant property tax break for homeowners,” that “undoubtedly helped many homeowners be able to afford their mortgage and insurance and stay in their homes throughout the recession.”

He added that with his county’s home values – the average in the city of Moscow is $229,000 – “the average working person in Latah County is among the group we’re characterizing as higher-value homes. So it’s going to impact the homeowners in my county. I observed the index mitigate a shift during the recession.”