BOE hears tax assessment appeals

It has been a while since I have written an Assessor’s Corner and thought it was now time to do so.

We had the Board of Equalization recently where taxpayers could challenge their assessment before the BOE which is the three commissioners acting as the Board of Equalization.

We had 66 parcels appealed and that is out of a total of 44,000 parcels in Bonner County which is a very small percentage. This, hopefully, means that the overwhelming number of taxpayers thought their assessment was fair.

The BOE upheld most of our assessments and 17 taxpayers did not agree with the Board of Equalization decision and filed an appeal with the State Board of Tax Appeals. These hearings will be held here in Bonner County in October.

We don’t think there is any doubt that there are more real estate sales now than in the near past and that prices are rising.

Partial evidence of rising prices is shown in the amount of the Home-owner’s Exemption. Next year, the Homeowners Exemption will rise to $89,580 up from $83,920 this year. That is about a 7-percent increase. The amount of the Homeowner’s Exemption is calculated by the State Tax Commission based on a comparison of known sales in Idaho. The peak (highest HO exemption) was in 2009 when it was $104,471. After that it went down each year until 2014 when it went up some and then the upcoming 2015 year which finally shows another rising market.

As you may know the personal property tax now has an exemption of $100,000 and we expect the Legislature might increase that in 2015 and at some point eliminate it altogether. Keep in mind that for every tax exemption that means that everyone else pays more in taxes to cover the budgets so it is good news and bad news.

We have an important election coming up in November and I encourage all voters to study the issues and the candidates and most importantly make informed votes.

The Assessor’s Office is here to serve the public and treat every taxpayer fairly and follow the laws in Idaho.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve you.

• Jerry Clemons is Bonner County assessor.