Candidates offer ways to slash property taxes

Indexing the homeowner’s exemption, improving education funding at the state level and controlling spending are some answers local Idaho Fifth District candidates provided to combat rising property taxes.

Fifth District House and Senate candidates answered questions Thursday night at a Moscow Chamber of Commerce forum at the Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories Event Center in Pullman.

Dulce Kersting-Lark, D-Moscow, who is running for Fifth District Seat A in the House against Brandon Mitchell, R-Moscow, said the homeowner’s exemption needs to be indexed and the circuit breaker program, which reduces property taxes for qualified applicants, needs to be expanded.

The homeowner’s exemption exempts 50 percent of the value of a resident’s home and up to one acre of land — with a maximum $100,000 exemption — from property tax.

Sen. David Nelson, D-Moscow, who is looking to fend off challenger Dan Foreman, R-Viola, said when the homeowner’s exemption was passed several years ago, it was intended to shield about half the property value of an average home from property tax.

“I don’t know of anybody in Moscow who has a house under $200,000 so that shield has faded,” he said.

Nelson said doing a better job funding education at the state level would also reduce the tax burden.

Mitchell, who owns six area Jiffy Lube businesses, said prioritizing spending is the way to reduce property taxes.

“You’ve got to control the spending before you can bring taxes down,” he said.

Renee Love, D-Moscow, said assessed property values are rising and partly causing property taxes to increase.

Love is a University of Idaho instructor and a small business owner who is running against incumbent Caroline Nilsson Troy, R-Moscow, and James Hartley, C-Moscow, for Fifth District Seat B in the House.

Love said potentially reducing sales tax exemptions that Idaho businesses already receive a great deal and utilizing internet sales tax money that is collected but not used could help alleviate property tax burdens.

Nilsson Troy said fiscal impact statements written in legislation need to do a better job addressing what the financial impact is on local governments.

“We need to really make sure that what we are expecting we understand where all those dollars are going,” she said.

Candidates were also asked about the Idaho Legislature’s role in addressing climate change.

Nilsson Troy said legislators need to continue keeping universities’ agricultural research and extension budgets strong.

She said the state has made a huge commitment to the Good Neighbor Authority, which allows the federal government to enter into agreements with state forestry agencies to do critical management work to keep forests healthy and productive.

“I think as the climate changes, we’re going to see more and more of these super fires,” Nilsson Troy said.

Love, who said she studies climate science at the UI, said climate change is unfortunately not a scientific debate.

“It’s a political debate and that’s unfortunate because I think the reason why we really need to make sure that we pay attention to it is because we need to make sure that our agricultural systems and our forest economies can rebound and can keep up with a changing climate.”

Nelson said legislators need to look at good research and institute practical projects to help agricultural and timber industries and control wildfires.

Mitchell says the planet has always changed.

“I’m not a climate denier but you’ve got scientists on this side that are saying it’s not caused by us,” he said. “You’ve got scientists on this side that are saying it is caused by us.”

He said there’s truth on both sides.

“As a representative, our responsibility is to take those two and put ‘em together and say, ‘OK, what’s the best solution?’” Mitchell said.

Kersting-Lark, who serves as executive director of the Latah County Historical Society, said the state can do things like purchase fuel-efficient vehicles, install bicycle lanes wherever possible and applaud organizations like Avista and Idaho Power that are moving toward 100 percent renewable energy.

“I think there are so many levels that we can address climate change,” Kersting-Lark said. “But first, we have to honestly go toe-to-toe with this reality and recognize that this is something we have to deal with.”

Foreman and Hartley did not attend the forum because they deemed the COVID-19 restrictions they would need to adhere to at Thursday’s forum unnecessary.

Avista Regional Manager Paul Kimmell, who moderated the forum, read statements from Foreman and Hartley.

“It’s time for people to disregard these unconstitutional restrictions of our freedoms,” wrote Foreman, who served in the state Senate from 2016-2018 before Nelson defeated him.

Hartley wrote that he cannot and will not wear a mask.

“Masks are proven ineffective and in fact are proven to be harmful to the well-being of persons that do not have any health issues,” Hartley wrote.

Garrett Cabeza can be reached at (208) 883-4631, or by email to gcabeza@dnews.com.