Teton County's Property Tax Override

DRIGGS — Late in a budget work session on June 23, County Administrator Billie Siddoway raised an idea she had discussed before with the clerk: ask voters for a permanent property tax override, one that would lift the county's tax base for good. The board made no decision. But it put on the table the one move the county otherwise can't make: reset the ceiling on what it collects. It surfaced even as the county holds savings, its own auditor has called larger than it needs.

The idea came up as the board worked to close a $130,000 gap in next year's budget, a small hole that is hard to fill. Idaho caps how fast any taxing district can grow the property taxes it collects: no more than about three percent a year over the highest amount it certified in the previous three years, plus a measured credit for new construction. A county can watch its assessed value double and still collect only about three percent more. Building more doesn't lift the ceiling; the only thing that could is a vote. That cap holds Teton County far below what a similar-sized neighbor collects.

County Clerk Kim Keeley explained what it would involve: lifting the county's property-tax base, the total it levies across all its funds, from about $7.3 million to $8.7 million, then putting it to voters. If two-thirds approve, the higher base holds for good, and the annual three percent compounds on the new number from there. The figure, she said, was one the office had "just kind of spitballed." The roughly $1.4 million jump is more than twice the most the cap could ever add in a single year.

Idaho also allows a temporary override, good for no more than two years, that needs only a simple majority and then expires, sending the county back to voters to make its case again. Keeley did not raise that alternative, even as she noted that a temporary levy, like the road levy that passed in May, is "a little easier to stomach." The permanent one is the harder sell: it requires a two-thirds supermajority and raises the county's taxes permanently, with no expiration date and no repeal vote.

The county is one line on a bill split among roughly nine taxing districts (the schools, the cities, the fire district, a cemetery district, a library, and others), and its share runs about a quarter to a third of the total, depending on where the property is located. A fifth more on the county's portion works out to a few percent of the whole bill, a permanent rise that then compounds at three percent a year.

The county's most recent audit, covering the year that ended last September, showed the general fund carried $3.2 million more than the auditor said it needed for cash flow, part of about $24 million in cash and investments across all the county's funds. Two million dollars of that was spent on the Teton Creek Resort settlement, yet the general fund still held about $7.5 million in cash at the end of May. The auditor said the surplus could go to "future projects or the payment of future court judgments," which is what the county did this spring. The county's investment balance earns roughly $850,000 a year in investment income, the clerk has stated in a recent meeting.

What to watch: The commissioners resume the FY27 budget at 9 a.m. on July 1. The open question is whether the board puts a property tax override to voters at all, and if it does, whether it chooses the permanent, two-thirds version Keeley described or the temporary, simple-majority version she did not raise.

Sources

Teton County Board of County Commissioners FY27 budget work session, June 23, 2026
Teton County FY27 draft budget summary
Teton County FY2025 audited financial statements
Idaho Code § 63-802