Spiraling property values in North Idaho have been a boon for some, a bane for others.

As an investment, real estate has been a marked success. But for residents whose incomes can’t keep up with appraisals, the tax bills can be enough of a burden to crush household budgets. In extreme cases, delinquent tax bills put homes on the auction block.

As if that weren’t sad enough, Idaho law contains an injustice that makes matters even worse. When a tax deed sale is held and the delinquent taxes have been paid, along with legitimate governmental costs associated with the process, the remaining proceeds don’t go back to the previous owner who may have spent years building up equity. They go to the government.

That windfall would have been ended by a bill that passed the Idaho Legislature this year, but Gov. Butch Otter vetoed it. Both the Senate and House approved SB 1385 by comfortable margins – 32-1 and 58-10, respectively – but Otter called it “preferential treatment” to let residents keep what’s left of their investment after taxes and other bills had been paid.

The consequences of the law were demonstrated most conspicuously more than seven years ago when a Bonner County woman, JoAnn McGuckin, fell $8,444 behind in taxes on her home and 40 acres. To cover the arrearage, an auction was held, and an out-of-state buyer paid more than $50,000 for the property. McGuckin never saw a penny of it; all of the surplus went to local taxing districts.

In Otter’s veto message, he noted that some houses that might be covered by the bill are abandoned or former meth houses that require costly refurbishment before they can be sold and put on the tax rolls. That’s a valid concern, but easily resolved: Sign the bill and call on lawmakers to add such expenses to the list of associated costs that the law already allows to be recovered in a tax deed sale. If the fix has to wait until next January to be addressed, that’s more bearable than letting honest but down-on-their-luck homeowners remain vulnerable to the unfair appropriation of their property.