On May 20, 2025, local fire districts want to permanently raise your property taxes hundreds of dollars a year.

Is this permanent tax increase just a first step to much higher taxes? 

Bonner County, Idaho — Tuesday, May 20, 2025, is election day, and your local fire district wants you to pay hundreds of dollars a year more in property taxes.

The tax levies on your ballot are permanent tax increases and do not affect the current funding for these rural fire districts. Repeat; the current budget for the fire districts is NOT on the ballot. Only the huge tax increases are on the ballot. If you vote NO next Tuesday, it will not cut the funding of your fire protection district, and they will maintain their current funding level.

On an average $500,000 home, Sagle Fire wants you to pay $170 more tax a year, a 39% tax increase.

On the same $500,000 home, Westside Fire wants you to pay $355 more each year, a 139% tax increase.

Northside Fire wants you to fork out $205 more in property tax each year, a 205% tax increase.

This might be only the beginning of tax increases.

One of the Sagle fire commissioners who voted to put this big tax increase on your ballot is also in the legislature. He is Jim Woodward. Just a few months ago, Woodward and Representative Mark Sauter, a former fire chief and professional firefighter from California sponsored a very interesting bill in the Idaho legislature that is related to our local fire districts.

Their House Bill 208 passed and goes into effect on July 1, 2025. H208 will allow the three fire districts that are asking for huge permanent tax increases on your home to also consolidate into one regional fire district and charge a MUCH higher tax rate in the Northside and Westside Fire Districts without going before Bonner County voters for approval.

Here is how the higher tax scheme could work in H208.

Currently, property owners in the Sagle, Westside and Northside districts pay property tax of $88, $51 and $20 per $100,000 in assessed property value. Under current law and the current tax rates, if Sagle and Northside Fire Districts were consolidated by the fire district boards, then the new property tax rates for a consolidated fire district would be set in the middle between Sagle’s rate of $88 and Northside’s rate of $20 per $100,000 in property value. That would set the rate at about $54 per $100,000 of home value.

The current law further requires that the new rate, being more than a 3% increase for Northside, would have to go before the voters for approval at an election in order for that new tax rate to be enacted. The end result in the current law is that in a Sagle/Northside consolidation, new tax rates would be set in the middle between the Sagle and Northside rates, and no new rates could go into effect without a public hearing and voter approval at an election.

But with Woodward’s and Sauter’s House Bill 208 going into effect on July 1, 2025, if Sagle and Northside were to consolidate, the new fire district could set the levy rate for the consolidated district at the HIGHEST of the current tax rates. Also, no public hearings for the rate setting are required, and no voter approval at an election is required at all. That means Sagle’s rate of $88 per $100,000 could be the new rate.

H208 allows much higher taxes to suddenly be imposed on some property taxpayers without a public hearing and without the voters’ direct consent.

Now, add in the impact of the tax increases on your ballot next Tuesday. If Sagle voters approve the new rate of $122 per $100,000, and Northside voters reject their tax increase and remain at $20 per $100,000, fire commissioners could consolidate Northside and Sagle fire districts into one consolidated fire district after July 1 and impose a tax rate up to $122 per $100,000 on all Northside fire district homes without voter approval. That would amount to a tax increase on Northside of 410%.

So, at the same time that these three fire districts are all asking for PERMANENT tax increases, a senator and a representative that have close ties to the fire districts also got a bill passed that could mean even higher taxes in the future. This is too much change to the law and massive, permanent tax hikes all at the same time. Property taxpayers, particularly those on a fixed income could be in for a lot of pain.

But Bonner County voters can reject all three of these tax increases next Tuesday, May 20, 2025. You must show up next Tuesday and vote AGAINST the levies in order to keep your property taxes the same as they are today.

Vote AGAINST the fire tax increases in Sagle, Westside and Northside.

Early voting is available until 5 PM on Friday, May 16, 2025 at the Bonner County Elections Office at Highway 2 and Division in Sandpoint. Polls are open next Tuesday, May 20, 2025, from 8 AM to 8 PM at your normal polling location.

To see what is on your ballot and to find your polling location, please visit VoteIdaho.gov.

One More Point.

H208 makes consolidation of fire districts easier for the government, and it makes the initial tax rate setting easier for the government. After an initial rate is set, a consolidated fire district would have to come back to the voters to set much higher rates later. In that election, your vote would now be diluted by all of the new homeowners that were added to your fire protection district through the consolidation. If some of the areas were in more dense populations near Sandpoint, that area might want more fire services while your rural area does not. They could simply out-vote you and up go your property taxes once again.