Taxes, health districts and transparency

The Kootenai County board of commissioners have been keeping their eyes peeled on legislation coming from the statehouse. Specifically those relating to taxing limitations, health districts, and transparent budget reporting. 

In a legislative update by Commissioner Leslie Duncan, she called to attention the newest tax-related bill that has the county worried. Senate Bill 1108, would change the growth formula for tax budgets and "provide relief for property owners from increasing property tax," Rep. Jim Addis, R-Coeur d'Alene, explained. 

"What we found was for years the math equation that pertains to adding new construction impacts the taxes of long-term residents," Addis said. "That was a failure on the part of the equation."

Under its provisions, taxing districts could still take up to a 3% budgetary increase. However, calculating new growth would be limited by a 75% cap on new growth/construction and only 50% of urban renewal district returns. 

"If you want new growth to pay for itself, this is clearly not the way to do it," Commissioner Chris Fillios said. "We took $1.2 million in new growth during the fiscal year 2020. If this legislation passed, we would only take $900,000 of that. We're expected to get this year roughly $3.4 million from closed URDs. Fifty percent of that is $1.7 million. So instead of having roughly $4.6 million in revenue we're getting $2.6, so we're forfeiting $2 million."

An added cap of 4% is placed on taxing entities that utilize forgone — limiting the amount of new growth and URD returns able to be applied.

Senate Bill 1060, carried by Sen. Steve Vick, R-Dalton Gardens, directly responds to community members' opposition to county and districtwide health district mandates. 

If approved, the pending legislation would require any order by the Public Health District to be approved or denied by the county commissioners where the mandate would take effect. 

"What they're trying to do is move the decision-making to the board of county commissioners," Fillios said. "That's fine as long as we still have some representation by medical professionals that are making the accurate recommendations."

Before the session, many regional lawmakers like Sen. Mary Souza expressed their interest in reevaluating public health districts' powers, citing the multiple mask mandates enacted by the Panhandle Health District and the public outcry that ensued during the second half of 2020.  

"It's specifically only if (the orders) are in regards to countywide or districtwide mandates, and I'm fine with that," Duncan said. "I think that it's reasonable and will help relieve a lot of the community's concerns."

Addis' local government uniform accounting legislation, House Bill 73, would set up a new reporting system that requires taxing districts to conform to a similar fashion and send information to the state controller's office.  

Both Duncan and Fillios support the idea of increased transparency among taxing district reporting. They pointed out that Kootenai County already applies the principle of public access and offers financial information on the county website. 

"We're about as transparent as it gets," Fillios said. "You can go into our financial reporting system and see it on a real-time basis, expenses versus revenues. They're also striving for uniformity, and it's just a question of how burdensome will it be for the smaller taxing districts."

Addis assured that the bill does not change the reporting requirement for small communities, as they can transmit data to controllers who will transplant the information into something understandable. He described the legislation as a "pro-taxpayer" bill, designed to make budget expenditures more understandable for the average person and improve transparency. He noted that in 2020 cities, counties, and local taxing districts levied approximately $2 billion, and there is nowhere that lets taxpayers know exactly where the dollars went. 

"There are certain cities that don't want this, and you have to wonder why. Why wouldn't we want our citizens to be able to understand it easier?" Addis said. "You know what they say, sunlight is the best disinfectant."

Kootenai County was one of the first counties to get on board with a pilot program in conjunction with the bill, Addis said, and the city of Coeur d'Alene has also expressed support.