Bill Cuts Property Taxes For Low-Income Families

For the second straight year, the House tax committee has approved legislation that would give low-income property owners a break on their property taxes.

The House Revenue and Taxation Committee on Monday endorsed legislation increasing the maximum amount allowable under the state’s “circuit breaker” law - from $800 to $1,200 over the next four years.

Low-income people now can qualify for a credit of up to $800 against their property taxes. The Tax Commission said 24,512 taxpayers claimed at least part of the credit last year.

People with a household income of about $7,000 qualify for the full $800. As income goes up, the credit goes down. The minimum credit is $100 for households with about $17,500 income.

The bill sponsored by Rep. David Bivens, R-Meridian, raises the maximum amount by $100 next year and to $1,200 by 1999. It would cost an extra $577,000 next year and $911,701 the year after that.

The Bivens measure also would make the minimum credit $150 instead of $100.

The measure was sent to the full House for consideration, which should come late this week. But last session, similar legislation cleared the House 69-0 and died in the Senate Local Government and Taxation Committee.

The tax panel killed competing legislation from Rep. Ken Robison, D-Boise. It would have increased the qualifying income amount to $25,000 in increments.

Ron Rankin, the Coeur d’Alene tax activist, urged support for Bivens’ measure, instead of the bill raising qualifying income levels. “The need is at the bottom of the heap,” he said.

Rep. Jim Kempton, R-Albion, voiced the major opposition to Bivens’ bill. With state tax collections faltering, he said, the legislation should be amended so it does not go into effect unless there is enough money to pay for it when the state closes its budget year July 1.

Rep. Maynard Miller, R-Moscow, said last year’s $42 million property tax cut meant little to most people, and many property owners wound up paying higher taxes despite it.

“The tax issue is still haunting us,” he said. “It’s time to do something.”

In an effort to save his bill, Robison suggested a compromise - raising the qualifying income limit and increasing the amount of the tax credit. But nobody took him up on it.