Property Tax Relief Bill Passes House

BOISE - A property tax relief bill has passed the house and got a hearing in the senate on Thursday.

House Bill 292 provides immediate and long term property tax relief to Idahoans.

Under the proposal, the first year of the bill will provide up to $355 million dollars in property tax relief.

The second year, up to $272 million dollars and the third year could see up to $332 million dollars in relief.

Also proposed in the bill, about $100 million dollars will be distributed to school districts based on average daily attendance.

The goal would be to lower the burden on tax-payers by funding schools through bonds and levies.

The legislation would also eliminate the March election date typically used for bonds and levies.

Circuit Breaker criteria would also be relaxed to allow more people to qualify.

State Representative Dustin Manwaring is a co-sponsor of the bill and says he's excited to see where this can go.

"I think this could potentially be one of the largest steps forward that we've taken as a state to target and provide homeowner property tax relief and doing it in an ongoing way that also helps our schools and so it's a pretty unique approach to try to cover both of those things that if we can help take some of that burden off of school facilities from the state, then it will lower property tax relief," says State Representative Dustin Manwaring, District 29, Pocatello.

Manwaring says if the bill passes and becomes law, you should see relief on your assessments that come out this next December.