Input error shorts taxing districts
SANDPOINT — A data-entry error at the Bonner County Assessor's Office caused taxing districts to be shorted $151,896, county commissioners said on Friday.
The error on a tax bill was brought to the treasurer's office attention last December. In-depth research revealed that a member of the assessor's team made a data entry error on a dock, resulting in a $22.4 million mistake in valuation.
The dock in question was originally measured at 576 square feet. After a 2019 site visit the dock was recalculated at 685 square feet. However, the two numbers were inadvertently combined during data entry, resulting in a square footage of 576,685 feet, which boosted the value of the property from $1.3 million to nearly $24 million, according to the county.
Due to the incorrect valuation, the overall property tax roll was inflated, which resulted in the under-collection of taxes in 2020. All told, eight taxing districts were shorted, county officials said.
Bonner County was shorted the most — $81,927. That sum includes a $16,147 reduction in the county's road and bridge tax collections and a $4,924 reduction for the ambulance district.
Lake Pend Oreille School District lost out on $45,825 in tax revenue, while the East Bonner County Library District lost out on $11,398. The Northside Fire District was shorted $8,013 and the Pend Oreille Hospital District was shorted $4,556, according to the county. The Kootenai-Ponderay Sewer District lost out on $184 in revenue.
Jessi Webster, the county's public information officer, said the county is declining to send out new tax bill because doing so would cost more than would be collected. The Idaho State Tax Commission also recommended against re-billing.
"This was an honest mistake by a new employee," Webster said on Friday.
Webster said the error is not expected to have a significant impact on the county's budget.
Lake Pend Oreille School District Superintendent Tom Albertson said the district is "reviewing the situation."
Webster said the county is working to ensure such mistakes will be caught prior to tax roll certification and that the assessor's office is undertaking measures to prevent such errors from happening again.
The taxing districts were notified by mail of the error prior to the issuance of a news release, Webster said.
"We'll see how it plays out, but we just figured we'd better let everyone know," Webster said.
Keith Kinnaird can be reached at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and followed on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.