Cougar Gulch Residents Fight Property Taxes In First Step, They Take Complaints To The County Commission

FROM FOR THE RECORD (Wednesday, July 9, 1997): Correction Wrong name: Dick Compton is a Kootenai County commissioner. His first name was reported incorrectly in a story on Cougar Gulch property taxes in Tuesday’s Spokesman-Review.

Cougar Gulch residents are trying to stick a needle into what they say is an ever-inflating balloon of property taxes.

Monday, they took their complaints to the county commission. If that doesn’t work, they’ll likely go to the state.

“I know that we’re not going to let it drop,” said resident Donna Erickson, who said the value of the acre her home is built on has gone up from $9,500 in 1987 to $26,000 last year. This year, she said the value more than doubled to $70,000, but she was able to haggle with the assessors, bringing it down to $60,000.

“It’s forcing people to sell their homes,” Erickson said. “We have our home up for sale … because of high taxes, we can’t justify it.”

This latest skirmish came about when the assessor’s office this year introduced a new way of determining the value of rural, Cougar Gulch acreages.

Owners of wooded acreage there no longer are eligible for the timber tax breaks they’ve enjoyed for years. No one is sure how much that will cost homeowners, but guesses range in the hundreds of dollars each year.

“We think the assessors are in the wrong department,” said resident Clyde James. “I don’t see how they got into the taxation side.”

About 300 families live in the Cougar Gulch area, and 100 already have given or pledged money to a neighborhood campaign to fight the assessor’s office, Erickson said. Since June, neighbors have held three meetings and hired their own land use planner and appraiser.

According to Kootenai County Assessor Marvin Vandenberg, the decision to change how assessments were done was made before he took office. But the reason, he said, is that Cougar Gulch property is selling faster than ever.

“It’s a popular place,” he said.

Homeowners disagree. Their private study contradicted the county’s claims.

“There has been no price increase to speak of in the last 18 to 24 months,” planner Sandy Emerson said. “The site values are quite similar to other places in the county.”

On Monday, commissioners listened to the complaints. Commissioner Ron Rankin, wearing a red-white-and-blue tie with a “don’t tread on me” snake pictured on it, sided with the homeowners.

“These people are being unfairly and unevenly taxed,” he said. He even offered them a check for $200 to help fund their campaign.

“Just tell me who to make it to,” Rankin said. The homeowners declined.

Commissioners Dan Compton and Dick Panabaker say they’ll wait until they hear what the state has to say.

“What I’m trying to do is stay objective and not jump to a decision,” Compton said.

The Idaho Tax Commission is investigating the change in assessment methods and will give its opinion to the county on Thursday.

Rankin said he thinks no matter what the county decides, the losing side will appeal to district court.

Here’s how the new assessing method works: If someone owns 10 acres - nine wooded, one used for a home - the value of any roads or other improvements on the nine wooded acres will be added to the residential acre’s value.

At the same time, if the total value of the 10 acres was $60,000, the nine wooded acres would account for only $12,000 to $20,000 of the property’s total value - meaning the value of the residential acre shoots way up.

That’s because the new plan assumes the timbered acres are worth only from $1,200 to $2,000 each - shifting the majority of a piece of property’s value to the one acre used for the house.

That’s why the timber exemptions are out the window; most of what the county claims it actually is taxing is the comparatively small slice of residential land.

“The bottom line is this,” Rankin said, “people who have property with the same total value would be paying considerably more than their assessed value last year.”

, DataTimes