Last I heard it was 6. Not surprised if it’s 3 now. That revenue is counted on by agenda hungry policy makers, as we know. Especially if you live in Commiefornia. They couldn’t wait 6 loooooong years to kick you out of your property to sell your house to the highest bidder and recollect taxes. They’ve got big plans there……electric only cars by 2040, poop pickup patrols, driving people out of WUIs (Wildland Ubran Interface) and into cities and towns (or just out of the state), elimination of single family homes, rounding up of homeless that don’t comply with trying to find a job that can’t create any more jobs because businesses can’t operate in a Marxist environment, wasting away billions of dollars on commuter rails to nowhere, water policy that mismanages water to expand drought more than alleviate it, ever more permissiveness of street crime, ever more coddling of criminal Big Tech, ever more coddling of sicko Hollywood political correctness, ever more bureaucracy growth, ever more failing road infrastructure and on and on.

$97,160 – 2012
$21,669 – 2013
$26,296 – 2019

The other parcel is: 321 Curtis – owned by Sinclair. It has received nearly a 9.5% reduction in taxes from its highest tax amount in 2017:

$47,356 – 2017
$42,892 – 2019

I have forwarded this info. to a local newspaper reporter to follow up on and seek an explanation for the residential taxpayers as to how the taxes are “worked” for these parcels.

So, it’s not who OWNS the property that matters, it’s who gets to ASSESS the property.

BUT….at the end of the day, you don’t OWN your property. If you decide not to pay the protection money to the mafia don, you get visited after the 6th year of not paying and you get evicted…at GUNPOINT…cuz this is a “free” nation and all that. Doesn’t matter that you disagree with education policy, road policy, police policy, tax policy, legal system or anything. Doesn’t matter if your own personal impact on others is minimal….you EXIST as a property owner and that’s all that matters.

It’s a form of Marxist claim on your life. Someone out there determines that you must contribute to the special plan that labels YOU as the problem in current school doctrine, and YOU get to pay for it. I know this cuz I used to be THAT person that was calculating how deplorable you are. When I finally learned that I ALSO was on the list, I had a big RETHINK of exactly what it was that I was carrying water for. Big mug o coffee that was, for sure.

This happens because it’s boiled frog. Incremental steps to controlling your life. Apathy is the biggest enemy in a world where we sign over our rights to city governments and politicians.

However, budgets are the answer. Few citizens attend Boise City budget hearings. They should. It is an education.

In the 2018 hearing, staff pointed out that in the previous five years the city had realized revenue surpluses while increasing budgets the maximum allowable by law. To avoid this embarrassing scenario, the council agreed to alter their budget (over budget) to avoid the appearance of surpluses. These surpluses should result in reduced budgets the following year.

Idaho law says “all nonexempt property be assessed AT market value as of January 1st.”
—Not “95%” of what they estimate the market rate is.

Those details aside, the 95% quote from the Assessor is a not so accurate. And his ‘explanation’ above is pretty much irrelevant for 95% of the property owners in Ada County.

Show me ONE assessment that was truly way too much in the past 5 years. Too much means – offered for the assessed value or less and not sold in a fair market. Show me a realtor that says, “let’s list it for your assessed value. That will be perfect!”

Just based on the laws of average, to get a ‘95%’ target statistically with so many below 95%, there MUST be MANY that are way over 95%. And that is not the case.
Sure, many come in at 95% or 100%, but a whole lot come in way less than the market. Required disclosure would close the gap.

An example I picked randomly off a list:
New MLS listing- 4393 W Briar Rock, in Eagle.
Listed for $770,000 (4/3 3,846 sqft)
assessor says $606,600 for Jan 1 2019
IF 95% holds true, then the Jan 1 2020 assessment will be about 738,800.
does anyone think the assessment will jump from 606 to 738?

IF in 2019, it increases 12% the new assessment would be 680,000 about 88% of the current listed price. And almost $100,000 LESS than the expected price.
Will it sell for list price? It’s a seller’s market. What we will soon know, is the 2020 assessment.

On the EAST end of the town is a 2.2million newly listed house, assessed for 1.3 million on Jan 1.
A million dollars of improvements in the last 10 months? Maybe. That must be a heck of new kitchen! Or is the realtor jus riding coke dreaming of that commission?

That same house paid
$16,018 in taxes for 2018 and
$16,319 for year 2019.
A $300 increase = OUCH!

And from 2015 to 2016, and from 2012 to 2013, their tax bill actually decreased.
Serious. I’m not kidding!
Can you imagine owning a million dollar house in Boise and the tax bill actually drops? (laughing as I type) Meanwhile, the Idaho Legislature and Congress reduces your income taxes at the same time! Trifecta!!!
THAT is Making America GREAT?
“Happy Thanksgiving, Honey.” :-/

A margin of error has a greater impact when applied to a greater mass.
In this case, “that error” benefits the wealthy owner more than the middle-income owner.

MLS says the median value increased 6% over the past year for new builds and 13% for existing.
What will your assessor say this January?

Today, a mailer from a realtor states the MEDIAN sale price for Ada County was $328,250 for existing homes and $401,702 for new build (month of the October). Weird that the median assessment is less than the median sold, right?

“Implementing the Budget: Once the budget is adopted, departments have discretion as to how the budgets are expended. One thing that cannot be done is to pass appropriation from one fund to another. Beyond this restriction, however, department O&M and Equipment budgets are controlled at a “bottom line” level. In other words, budget control is not applied at a line item level. CIPs are controlled at the project level. “

Would this really mean that a department could submit a budget, then literally not stick to it, as “discretion” on how it is spent is allowed? I know that the city uses the Interim Budget Change (IBC) process quite frequently to move the money around. Anyone can see the IBC requests, as they show up on the City Council Work Session Agenda at least once per month. The shuffling of Park Impact Fees is a frequent request via this process.

Another factor that has impacted residential taxes over the past few years, is that commercial property tax has been declining while residential tax has been increasing. Can anyone offer a fact based explanation as to why this has occured? Is this connected in any way to the change that was made to the homeowner exemption?