Whether or not Marie Antoinette actually replied “Let them eat cake then,” that sentiment certainly seems to sum up the attitudes of our elected, self proclaimed, “ruling class” elite.

Hollywood Dirk says that property taxes are a “local issue” but the whole process is governed by the STATE Constitution and STATE Statute. He has done his best to take care of himself and his “pals.” Too bad that instead of a ticket to Moscow and a long career of real estate pandering Dirk didn’t receive a bus ticket to Fort Ord and subsequent tour or two of sloshing the rice paddies in SE Asia. I would STILL be terribly thankful to his draft board had that occurred.

Dolores Cow? Last year she said that it was a “No Brainer” to support tax breaks and subsidies for big business and developers. But this year her constituents really don’t appear to deserve property tax relief. I guess we, her subjects, are not bleeding enough yet.

Our Ada County Commishes have certainly made me proud too often to enumerate. Just one recent example is their disregard for open meeting laws and whom they feel should pay for their defense. As a Canyon County resident they provided me with much comic relief. Now however, as Will Rogers once said “It is always funnier when it happens to the other fellow.”

The Boise City government? Time and space precludes even beginning to list their past and present shenanigans. They still provide me with a few chuckles but that is only because they have not quite extended their “Impact Zone” to the entire county. Well, I guess that isn’t quite true either. Boise’s poop ends up closer to home than I would like. Maybe they could cut an under the table deal to sell or give it to Jean Pierre to fertilize his new forest service land at Tamarack.

The hot tar and feathers treatment couldn’t be considered a “violent overthrow” if it was just meant to correct wrongful attitudes would it?

Sorry, I forgot to offer up my solutions to the governments’ dilemma of claiming to never have enough funding. I know how much money the state and county extort from my wife and I. We have moderate incomes and humble property holdings. We too wonder where all the money from the taxes on the thousands, some of them quite elaborate, new houses and their resident’s incomes go?

Good Grief! Malignant growth of new residents, new businesses and manufacturers must not be self-funding! I have closely monitored it for over forty years. That is almost the length of time I have been a landowner. Our family’s observations go back generations. (No, we don’t support the mindless chant that “Growth is good” for just negative monetary reasons.)
If the last forty years of “anything and everything for growth” policies paid for themselves, my taxes on various parcels of land located in several Idaho counties would not have increased three to nine hundred percent during that period. That doesn’t even acknowledge the three PERCENT (Dirk: Please note PERCENT. NOT three “pennies.”) sales tax that we didn’t even need to “Save Our Schools” until the early sixties.
1. Tighten up the pollution and environmental laws that make us so attractive to feed lots, huge dairies, power plants, cyanide and strip miners, etc.) If we can’t quite bring ourselves to do that, at least tax them at the same income and property tax rates that we common serfs are forced to pay.
2. Quit funding the commissions and other tax supported entities that promote the state. (That would save a lot of money by itself.) Stop fueling something that obviously doesn’t work.
3. Upon arrival in Idaho the “new resident’s” first driver’s license, first hunting and fishing license, vehicle licenses, boat licenses, ATV tags and so forth should be increased as a sort of one time “Impact Fee.” Let them buy in to established programs instead of raising everyone’s fees to compensate.
4. Place a head tax on all pre and school age children of the “new residents.” Let the bean counters assess a reasonable fee for this one.
5. Allow impact fee assessments for new to Idaho construction permits. Apply them equally to businesses and houses. NO more land, income or permit fee “incentives” for anyone.
5. ACTIVE, “in use” agricultural land should be protected. If it is being held for development, or has already been platted and subdivided, it should at least be taxed at the same rate that it sold for last or at the “developed” value. No exceptions to this one.
Above all else Dirk, Dolores, Dave, et. al., try doing what we peons have to do: LIVE WITHIN YOUR BUDGET!

I am totally in favor of increasing the homeowner’s exemption – for owner occupied properties. A recent article in the Statesman quoted people saying that renters should get it too. Having been a landlord for many years and having been employed in the real estate business for most of my life I just about fell over laughing. Rents are basically established by market forces…if there is a glut of rentals then rental prices may go down – they are not tied directly to the landlord’s expenses. Meanwhile the landlord gets a direct write-off of all expenses, including taxes, insurance, utilities, etc. I am just not going to feel sorry for poor landlords. If you buy smart you can make a lot of money in investment real estate – you don’t need a government subsidy.

I retired from IBM (Tokyo, Japan) in 1987 and returned to my native state after 38 years’ absence in college, the U. S. Navy and IBM. That year I purchased a slightly above average market value retirement home on five acres west of Meridian in Ada County (one-half mile east of the Canyon County line). The 1986 taxes on the property were $1047 which were easily accommodated by IBM’s rather generous annual retirement annuity of $39,405. This property tax load consumed 2.6% of my gross income or 9.7 days.

Fast forwarding to 2005, my gross annual income had increased to $57,388, courtesy of small IBM adjustments and Social Security kicking in. Smoothed out this is a compound annual growth rate of 2.1%, not too dissimilar from that of state employees. Similarly my property taxes have grown, but to $3662, a compound growth rate of 6.8% per year. It now takes me 23.4 days to reach Independence Day from this burden.

My current life expectancy is a period about equal to the years I have been retired. Projecting forward another 17 years my gross income based on SSA indexing only at 2.4% annually will be approximately $64,144. Meanwhile, unchecked, my property taxes at 6.8% annually will have increased to $11,205 or 63.8 days of my expected gross income at that time.

This constantly increasing burden is based primarily on the speculation driven and unrealized gain in the value of my property. My other taxes, income and sales, are rational and not leveraged by money I don’t have. I can reduce my consumption to keep my sales tax manageable and my income tax keeps pace with my cash flow, more or less. Looking at other tax paying entities in Idaho, how many have 23 or even 64 days carved out of their cash flow to merely cover their property taxes?

Obviously I would much prefer increases in sales (with fewer exemptions) and income taxes as opposed to the extortion being extracted by property taxes as now structured. I would even support a recapture by taxing the property value growth beyond the CPI (consumer price index) measure of inflation, upon transfer of property ownership at death or other disposition. In other words, impose a tax on the real purchasing power gain above the adjusted cost basis at disposition.

Elderly, fixed income citizens, those largely without advocates nor lobbyists in the Legislature, should not be bled white by the current property tax system. Let’s change the taxing system to be more dependent on real cash-flow, income and consumption. Let’s also get back on track and make up the arrearage in education funding – that’s where the future is. Do this in part by killing Kempthorne’s $50 energy rebate (political pandering) and the millions to purchase the Simplot palace’s buffer acreage. Most Idaho citizens live modestly and the Governor needs not to be that ostentatious – he is not royalty.