Senate committee holds House Bill 435 after assessors warn 95–105% assessment range would strain small counties

BOISE, March 26 — The Senate Local Government and Taxation Committee on Wednesday held House Bill 435 at the call of the chair after several county assessors urged removing a provision that would narrow acceptable assessment ratios from 90'110% to 95'105% and raised concerns about staffing, data availability and timing.

Representative Jeff Ehlers, District 21 (Meridian), sponsor of the trailer bill, told the committee the measure bundles several tax-related corrections and clarifications. "This is a trailer bill all related to taxation, some corrections, clean up, and clarification," Ehlers said in opening testimony. He described provisions that would: set historic flat-tax rate dates explicitly for the tax commission; limit statute-of-limitations look-backs for sales and income tax audits to three years except in cases of fraud; clarify when the tax commission may begin charging interest after identifying a return for audit; confirm that $330,000,000 will be treated as gross revenue and remain in the base for education funding; and make clear that $100 million in property-tax relief tied to a property-tax bill will reach taxpayers in calendar year 2025 no later than Aug. 31.

The bill's most contested change would narrow the assessment ratio standard used by the Idaho State Tax Commission and assessors when testing local assessment levels. Current law and widely used appraisal standards allow a 90'110% testing band; HB 435 would change that to 95'105% for certain valuation testing,…