SANDPOINT, Idaho — After property tax bills went out to Bonner County residents last week, many expressed frustration or confusion on social media with what they found inside.
According to Bonner County Treasurer Clorissa Koster, the majority of levies are down this year, but that is only one factor that goes into what a resident pays in property taxes.
How much an individual pays in property taxes is determined by taking the taxable market value of their property and multiplying it by the levy rate of each tax district the property falls under, Koster said. Once you add together what is owed to each tax district, you have the total a person owes in property taxes.
Taxing districts need roughly the same amount of money every year to fund the services they support. Whether the service is a local library district, an ambulance district or a school district, all must keep the lights on, pay personnel and replace aging equipment.
This means that if the market value of a tax district went down overall then the levy rate will increase to bring in the same amount of money for the tax district.
How that levy rate impacts each individual in a taxing district can vary. Even if an individual's levy rate has increased, if their property value decreased, or simply didn’t increase as much as other properties in the district, then they could pay less in property taxes than they did previously.
To read the full story, visit our news partner, the Bonner County Daily Bee.
