Kootenai County Board of Equalization pauses appeal over Allison Knapp’s homeowner exemption; hearing continued to Jan. 7

The Kootenai County Board of Equalization on Dec. 18 continued a contested appeal by appellant Allison Knapp over a notice of ineligibility for a homeowner’s exemption, voting to reconvene the matter on Jan. 7, 2026 and instructing county staff not to remove the exemption pending the continued hearing.

The hearing centered on conflicting evidence about where Knapp resides. Assessor Cesar Kovacs told the board he and his office compiled multiple sources — including a report from the Idaho State Tax Commission indicating a taxpayer filed as a nonresident — and public records from Spokane County and the City of Rathdrum to reach a preponderance-of-evidence finding that Knapp may not be living at the Kootenai County property. “I rechecked with the State Tax Commission three times,” Kovacs said, and described the tax-commission response as definitive when it showed a nonresident filing for the year in question.

Knapp and her representative urged the board to weigh all evidence together rather than a single document. Her counsel and CPA provided an evidence packet, citing Idaho Code 63-602(g), Idaho Code 63-3077 and administrative rules and case law that, the appellant argued, make clear no single factor is dispositive of domicile. Knapp said she supplied an Idaho driver’s license, voter registration, vehicle registration and utility bills. “It should be based on all residency documentation together,” Knapp said.

Board members pressed Kovacs on the timing and delivery of evidence: several large public-record packets were emailed or handed out to the commission shortly before the session, and commissioners asked whether the assessor’s office had given Knapp a chance to rebut the findings before issuing a notice of ineligibility. Kovacs said his office did not remove the exemption and that the notice the appellant received warned the claim as ineligible but that final action would be determined by the BOE. “We have not removed the exemption,” Kovacs told the board.

Kovacs described finding corporate filings that listed a Newman Lake, Washington address in annual reports for an LLC associated with Knapp, and he said Rathdrum utility records included a “letter of agreement” that, in his view, can be used as an indicator of rental status. He also said portions of the homeowner-exemption application filed in 2022 were incomplete and therefore, in his view, “fatally defective.” The assessor said his office followed statutory guidance and that when the State Tax Commission indicates a nonresident filing, it is treated as authoritative guidance for the assessor’s next steps.

A commissioner also raised concerns about the appearance of impropriety because Knapp has filed to run for the assessor’s position. The commissioner asked why Kovacs personally led the investigation rather than delegating it to avoid even the appearance of bias. Kovacs said he handled the matter cautiously because some of the public records included sensitive confidential information and that he followed the office’s protocol.

Chief Deputy Dyson (named in the record) told the board that the BOE’s role is to determine whether the assessor reached the correct conclusion given the evidence and reiterated that the assessor sought guidance from the State Tax Commission in this instance.

After questions and argument from both sides, a board member moved to continue the hearing to Jan. 7, 2026 and to instruct the assessor not to remove the homeowner’s exemption until that date. The motion carried by recorded voice vote with three ayes.

The board directed the assessor to provide the unredacted public records (which Kovacs said contained sensitive personal data) to the appellant in a secure form or otherwise make the relevant, redacted evidence available for review, and Kovacs offered the updated homeowner-exemption application form under recent changes in state law for Knapp to complete. The hearing will resume on Jan. 7, 2026.

What’s next: The BOE reconvenes the appeal on Jan. 7, 2026. The assessor was instructed not to remove the homeowner’s exemption before that date; the board will consider the larger packet of public records and the statutory standards for domicile when it takes up the case again.