Simison shouldn’t blame the Legislature for property tax issues. Do better planning | Opinion

How much has your family’s income increased in the last year? Is it 9%? Many would be surprised to learn that the city they live in is able to increase the property taxes they levy on an ongoing basis by as much as 9% a year.

For some of these officials, however, even a 9% increase is not enough to satisfy them. It is unfortunate that Meridian Mayor Robert Simison chose the occasion of his recent “State of the City” address to attack the Idaho Legislature generally, and me specifically. His chief complaint was that HB 389 , which I sponsored and became law in 2021, does not allow him to increase Meridian’s property taxes as much as he would like.

Certainly, HB 389 does generally prevent cities from increasing the property taxes they levy by more than 8% in any given year, with a couple of exceptions, such as allowing cities that did not take the maximum property tax increases in prior years to levy these “foregone balances” to increase property taxes by an additional 1% on an ongoing basis.

The mayor says that because he wants to increase Meridian’s property taxes by more than 8% in the upcoming year, he will not only take the full 3% increase allowed for any city, plus 5% for new construction and annexations, he will also take another 1% in foregone balance – essentially spending money saved by his thriftier predecessors – for a full 9% increase in property taxes. Most families are not seeing these kinds of income increases, and make no mistake, he is spending your money. This is what can happen through the budget increases approved by your elected city officials.

The mayor says that increasing your property taxes by the further 1%, from 8% to 9%, somehow represents growth not paying for itself. This is nonsense. As he should know, there is no separate or different property tax levy rate paid by the owners of newly constructed properties. All property owners in Meridian pay the same city property tax levy rate, which is calculated simply by dividing the city’s property tax budget (as approved by your elected city officials) by the taxable value of all property in the city.

So when state law prevents Mayor Simison from increasing Meridian’s property tax budget by more than 9% in 2024, it does not cause either new or existing properties to pay more, or have a property tax burden shifted to them. It simply means that property taxes will not increase as much as Mayor Simison would like – and that saves money for every property taxpayer in the city.

The failure of one city to plan for an orderly pace of growth is not a reason to change a law that protects property taxpayers not just in that city, but across the entire state, from massive increases in property taxes. If Mayor Simison feels like a 9% increase in property taxes is not enough for him to spend, he can certainly access some of the money sitting in his city’s year-end general governmental funds balance – over $90 million, according to the city’s most recent audited financial statement posted to the Transparent Idaho website – an amount almost double the city’s annual property tax collections.

And keep in mind, HB 389 does not prevent Meridian or any other Idaho city from increasing property taxes by more than 9%. It simply requires the transparency of submitting a larger increase to the city’s voters for approval. If a larger increase represents needs, and not wants, then perhaps that is what he should do.