The economy is tanking. Big companies want a bail out. The current OpenCdA poll is about your property tax bill, which should arrive in your mailbox today. Mine went up despite my home’s assessment dropping from last year. Here are two things that factor into the higher property taxes you’re paying:
1. The Education Corridor. Remember, NIC took foregone taxes to pay $10M (a value set years ago) for property to expand commercial development in downtown Coeur d’Alene.
2. The LCDC. The city’s Urban Renewal Agency increases the amount of property taxes you pay. They’ll try to say otherwise, but they’re not being truthful: urban renewal increases property tax bills. That’s how it pays for itself. The question is always: how do you benefit?
Now imagine a $300 to $700 increase had all the various bond and levy measures actually passed this year. Thank God they didn’t — and I hope those taxing districts now recognize how great the pain level is out here.
Remember. The City of Coeur d’Alene was $18,000,000 over budget last year. They could have used that money to completely offset property taxes you owe this year. They chose not to. Instead, they spent all the money on various things — not one of which was on their budget.
In these hard economic times, we really need to look closely at what local government does for us. How do we as citizens benefit from their dream projects? Or are they steering our money into ego-driven schemes or projects that benefit only their friends and city insiders?
Update 11/23: My original figures were incorrect. While my taxes have gone up since last year, the increase is only about 3%. There were minor increases in all the taxing districts, with NIC taking the largest chunk.
These are the kind of facts that should be in the newspaper for wider readership.
Comment by Faringdon — November 22, 2008 @ 3:03 pm
How can property owners who receive their property tax statements calculate how much of their “total due” amount is there because of the urban renewal agencies? How much larger is their “total due” amount because of urban renewal, if it is larger?
Comment by Bill — November 23, 2008 @ 8:23 am
It does go up, Bill, but the amount varies because no two properties are truly alike (which goes counter to the Idaho Constitution, but work with me here). Each property has a different value and many have different homeowner exemption values. The levies types for each property differ as well, seeing how there are four highway districts in Coeur d’Alene.
For approximations, your Coeur d’Alene City levy goes up as much as 14% because of the LCDC. County levies go up about 5% from all the URDs in the county. So the impact is going to be different on each property, but it’s there and for some people the difference is quite substantial.
I believe it’s really the responsibility of the City, specifically Mayor Bloem, to explain how much the impact is and to justify that impact by explaining how projects benefit citizens in exchange for that impact.
Comment by Dan — November 23, 2008 @ 9:54 am
I checked my tax bill yesterday (why is it they always arrive on a weekend?) and didn’t see “urban renewal” as such. Is it shown as such or is it buried somewhere else?
Comment by Faringdon — November 23, 2008 @ 9:54 am
Only people in an urban renewal district have the URD classification on their property tax bills. That’s because those properties directly fund urban renewal. Everyone, inside or outside the district, makes up that difference in higher taxes.
Comment by Dan — November 23, 2008 @ 10:20 am
This year between assessment and collection times there has been an obvious decrease in property values. How can owners challenge their assessments or can they? Will they have to wait until next year to realize this years dump in property values?
Comment by Wallypog — November 23, 2008 @ 2:50 pm
Wallypog: You have to challenge your assessment after it comes out. Next year when that happens, I’ll write a post on how to do it and put it here on OpenCdA.
Comment by Dan — November 23, 2008 @ 3:03 pm