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Senate committee advances trailer bill tightening property-assessment parity between classes
Summary
Senate Bill 1216, presented as a trailer to earlier property-tax legislation, would require different property classes' assessment ratios to stay within five percentage points of each other; the committee voted to send the bill to the Senate floor with a do-pass recommendation.
BOISE, Idaho — The Senate Local Government and Taxation Committee voted Wednesday to send Senate Bill 1216 to the floor with a do-pass recommendation. Representative Jeff Ehlers presented the measure as a "compromise" trailer bill to earlier property-tax legislation.
Ehlers said the bill maintains an overall assessment interval ("90 to 110" in the statute) and adds a provision requiring that different property-type assessment ratios be no more than five percentage points apart. "If residential was 97 percent of market value, then commercial could only be within 5 percentage points of that," Ehlers said, noting the provision was developed with county assessors and the tax commission.
Senators asked whether the five-point constraint aligns with broader standards; Ehlers said the language was chosen to work with national or international standards and to give assessors some flexibility when sales or comparable data are scarce. The presentation referenced House Bill 354 (already enacted) and noted related language in House Bill 479, which staff and participants said addresses other pieces of the property-tax package.
After brief discussion, Senator Dan Hartog moved to send Senate Bill 1216 to the floor with a do-pass recommendation; Senator Toews seconded. The committee approved the motion by voice vote. The measure will proceed to the Senate calendar and could be combined with other property-tax provisions on the floor.
