Property tax relief bill headed to Little’s desk

BOISE, Idaho (KIFI) - Property tax relief and a change in Idaho elections are in a bill headed to the governor's desk.

House Bill 292 has several working parts including up to $355 million in ongoing property tax relief, $100 million for schools and a provision to remove March elections. 

March elections are usually when bond and levy elections are put before the voters.

"That March date is extremely important because school districts need to know exactly how much money they're dealing with, how much money they're going to have available for salaries, for operations, etc," Senator Janie Ward-Egelking said.

Some lawmakers say March elections are costly to run, and a proposed $100 million to schools should eliminate the need for them.

"This is maybe an offset of that," Senator Doug Ricks said. "There is money going down to that. With that $100 million a school district, some districts don't have many bonds. They'll get extra money that they can start accumulating and they can use that to actually bond against or that's like borrow money against."

The majority of the money would provide immediate tax relief to homeowners.

The bill passed on a 32-to-3 vote.