Editor's Note: We received feedback after our recent posts about Driggs and Victor's urban renewal districts that some people had no idea what an urban renewal agency was, or how it worked, or what it did. So we put this piece together explaining the current Idaho law and local situation.
An urban renewal agency is a public body a city or county creates under Idaho law to pay for streets, utilities and other public works in a defined area. Under current law, for up to 20 years, it keeps much of the property tax collected on rising taxable value within its district and spends it on projects listed in a plan the city or county approved. Victor and Driggs each have one.
Victor's agency received $98,252 in tax increment in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2025, its annual report shows. Its preliminary budget for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1 projected $205,000, with $95,000 from its north district. The Idaho State Tax Commission estimated that urban renewal agencies statewide received $76,079,249 in 2023, about 3.4% of all the property taxes Idahoans paid that year. Agencies in Teton County received $247,079 of that.
