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Commissioners try to calm alarm over valuations |
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Tuesday, 03 June 2008 |
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By Emily Hone BLACKFOOT — Bingham County Commission Chairman Wayne Brower’s home phone was flooded over the weekend with calls from people who received notice Friday that their home valuations increased this year by up to 48 percent, but the commissioners said it’s not cause for a lot of worry.
Commissioner Cleone Jolley said that doesn’t mean their taxes will increase proportionately.
Jolley said the Homeowners Exemption also increased, and the commissioners are constrained by state law from increasing the budget by more than 3 percent over the budgets of the three preceding years.
“It’s the mill levy not the valuation that sets out how much people are going to pay in taxes,” he said. “Just because the value of their homes went up, that doesn’t mean their taxes will go up.”
Jolley said the increase in property valuation was only in Range 35 from Shelley through Blackfoot, which runs from 0 to 500 West, and the increase ranged from 29 to 48 percent.
He said the State Tax Commission has mandated that the assessed value of property in all Idaho counties be brought within 10 percent, plus or minus, of its market value every five years. The rule has not been applied in Range 35 over the past five years, Jolley said, and that coupled with increases in market value account for the high percentage of increase.
Brower said nobody can say for certain at this point what the levy will be, but typically when the county’s valuation goes up, the levy should go down.
The Idaho Legislature raised the Homeowner’s Exemption for 2007 to $75,000 or 50 percent of the value of an owner occupied home up to $89,325.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 04 June 2008 )
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