The legislature is (almost) over for the year after a whirlwind three months of grueling committee hearings, debates on the floor and the sound of bills slamming into desk drawers, never to be again reviewed.

So how did it all end?

While we haven’t tracked every action at the State Capitol like some outlets, BoiseDev observed several key pieces of legislation impacting Treasure Valley, growth, housing, property taxes, and Valley County. .

Here’s how they got away with it:

Tax property taxes

The topic on most voters’ minds is almost always property taxes and what can be done to provide relief to homeowners.

The debate over Idaho’s soaring property taxes has now dominated the past four legislative sessions, with little progress in sight. During those debates, Republican leaders, like R-Star House Majority Leader Mike Moyle, argue that local government spending needs to be restrained to fix the problem, while Democrats and some other representatives of right say there should be more relief for low income people. landowners and amendments to the landlord exemption instead.

Last year, the Legislature narrowly passed HB 389, a sweeping tax package that made several changes to several sections of the property tax code in an attempt to provide relief. But, even with new restrictions on how much local governments could increase their budgets due to new growth, a slight increase in the homeowner’s exemption, and an increase in the property tax reduction program for seniors. low-income Idaho homeowners have always felt the pinch of rising values. .

One of the only property tax bills passed this year came from Representative Charlie Shepherd, R-Pollock, reversing some of the changes implemented in HB 389. This bill will add some of the hundreds of Idahoans who should be evicted from the property tax cut. program this year due to their home values ​​exceeding 125% of their county’s median value under changes enacted in 2021.

Shepherd’s bill will create a new threshold of $300,000 or 150% of the county’s median estimated value, whichever is greater, to participate in the program.

There were also two dueling property tax reform pitches from Moyle and Sen. Jim Rice, R-Caldwell, but neither went far. Moyle’s bill, which passed the House but was not heard in the Senate, would have required local governments to spend half of new sales tax revenue on property tax relief.

Rice’s speech to replace nearly all property taxes with a raised sales tax made headlines, but the bill was withdrawn in hopes of bringing it back next year after lawmakers and interest groups will have had time to consider it.

Housing, housing, housing

How to address concerns about Idaho’s growing housing crisis was also a hot topic during this year’s session.

A bipartisan effort by Rep. Joe Palmer, R-Meridian, and Rep. James Ruchti, D-Pocatello, to reform how the state regulates rental application fees collapsed halfway through the legislative process. Their first bill, which would have prohibited the city from capping rental application fees, like the City of Boise’s $30 cap, easily left the House with support from interest groups like Idaho. Apartment Association.

But, part of the deal to win votes in the Senate to ban rental application fee caps was a second bill requiring landlords to follow best practices for evaluating applications and not take more applications than of units available. Even with support from the same real estate and property management industry groups, the bill died on the House floor.

It’s the second time in as many sessions that an effort to end Boise’s candidacy fee cap has failed to make it to the governor’s office.

To help ease the housing crisis, lawmakers voted to create a special fund to use $50 million of U.S. federal bailout funds to help private developers build workforce housing throughout the state. This housing is not for low-income Idahoans, but will instead be for people earning between 80-120% of the area median income.

It passed by a single vote in the House and is due to expire in 2026.

Two Valley County-centric bills fall flat

Rep. Terry Gestrin, R-Donnelly, passed two bills with big implications for Valley County development, but neither went anywhere.

The first pitch, originally presented by development group Trident Holdings, would have changed the way the Idaho Department of Lands evaluates land swaps. The process the bill would have changed is the same process Trident proposed to use to access prime development land around McCall and Payette Lake by swapping it for forest land in northern Idaho.

Their proposal to swap the land fell through, so Trident, with the help of Gestrin, hoped to pass a bill creating a governor-appointed ombudsman position within the Idaho Department of Lands and requiring assessments goods offered for exchange. One of Trident’s main arguments with the Idaho Land Department regarding their rejection of the land swap proposal is that the department should have conducted an assessment.

The second bill introduced by Gestrin would have removed all requirements for subdividing land of 80 acres or more into smaller lots of 20 acres or more. This would allow the lands to be divided and sold without further examination.

Opponents of the bill included Valley County, which recently voted to require a review of every land division, regardless of parcel size, and the Idaho Conservation League. ICL said the bill would give more control to developers and large landowners and undermine the ability of local governments to control growth. They posited that the Wilks Brothers, who own land in Valley County, were pushing the bill because of the recent land distribution change in Valley County.

Building codes stay the same

An effort by Rep. Sage Dixon, R-Ponderay, to make changes to how building codes are approved in Idaho also failed to make progress.

He introduced a pair of bills that would have added legislative oversight to the building code adoption process. The first bill he proposed, which never left the House Business Committee, would have passed a statewide energy conservation code in Idaho. This would prevent cities from adopting more stringent renewable energy standards than the state allows.

The second piece of legislation Dixon hoped to pass would have required one house of the legislature to approve all amendments recommended by the state building code committee. This legislation was never referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce and Human Resources.

Tips

Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, won support from both houses for his bill preventing counties from doing a ground lease to pay for a new jail or courthouse without voter approval. While county officials said it was a necessary tool to pay for needed government facilities, Skaug and other supporters of the legislation said voters should have a say in whether governments spend a lot for capital projects.

As of Tuesday, Governor Brad Little had not yet signed it.

Senator Lori Den Hartog, R-Meridian, carried two bills that easily passed the legislature and signed into law. The first will eliminate the $15 fee for homeless Idahoans to receive an ID card from the Idaho Department of Transportation to help them apply for housing, employment and other social services. The second bill will end emissions testing for Treasure Valley in 2023.