An interesting little bit of history in relation to the bill this session to remove the inflation indexing from Idaho’s homeowner’s exemption: Idaho first got the homeowner’s exemption in 1982 by voter initiative. At that time, it exempted 50 percent of the value of the home, not including land, up to a maximum of $50,000; it wasn’t just for owner-occupied homes, and also covered rentals and second homes. The initiative passed with 56.5 percent in support and 43.5 percent opposed, after years of outcry over a property tax burden that was fast shifting onto residential property and away from all other types of property.

The next year, lawmakers tried to cut the popular voter-enacted “50-50” exemption down to a maximum of $15,000, but then-Gov. John Evans vetoed the bill, according to a history compiled by former Sen. Ken Robison, D-Boise, who helped lead the initiative effort. Then, a compromise emerged: Legislation to limit the exemption just to owner-occupied homes, eliminating it for rentals and vacation homes. Robison wrote that supporters of the initiative opposed the change, but recognized “that it may be a necessary price to pay to save the initiative for homeowners.”

In 1986, the Idaho Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the homeowner’s exemption, ruling that it’s in compliance with the Idaho Constitution. In the Bonneville County case, Simmons v. Idaho State Tax Commission, the justices ruled that “the exemption does further legitimate state interests, such as fostering home ownership and equalizing the tax burden between residential and business properties.”

The next year, then-Reps. Mike Simpson, R-Blackfoot, and Dean Haagenson, R-Coeur d’Alene, introduced legislation to repeal the homeowner’s exemption. There was an outcry led by the Idaho Senior Lobby; the bill died without a hearing. You can read Robison’s extensive legislative history of the issue here; it stretches from 1965 to 2006.

In 2006, lawmakers changed the exemption to include the value of up to 1 acre of land along with the home, raised the top exemption to $75,000, and tied the cap to the housing price index so it would rise and fall along with Idaho's housing market. The top exemption currently is $94,745.

Robison is a retired journalist who was editorial page editor of the Idaho Statesman from 1967 to 1977, then served nearly two decades as a member of the Legislature, serving in the Senate in 1979-80 and in the House from 1987 to 2004. He is the author of the 2014 book “Defending Idaho’s Natural Heritage,” a history of the major conservation battles in Idaho from 1890 to 1980.

HB 431, the bill to remove the indexing of the exemption and instead cap it at $100,000, has passed the House and cleared the Senate Local Government & Taxation Committee; it’s awaiting a vote in the full Senate.