A bill that would have temporarily frozen some property taxes while officials tackle the issue of explosive growth died Thursday in the Idaho Senate.

House Bill 409, which called for a moratorium on most property tax increases, was voted down 24-11 in the Senate after a 46-23-1 passage in the House in late February.

The bill, widely panned by city and county officials throughout Idaho, was originally brought forth by Mike Moyle, a representative from the town of Star, to combat rising property taxes. It’s an issue he took up with Ada County clerk Phil McGrane, making an example of the county’s budget during a Feb. 13 hearing in the House Revenue and Taxation Committee to demonstrate his intent behind the legislation.

“Do you think you could live on that $24 million for just one year while the citizens of Idaho and you and the cities and the counties and the legislatures sit down and try to find a solution to these expanding, growing concerns...with property taxes?” Moyle asked.

As it turned out, HB 409 ended up stretching out to a three-year freeze after amendments got tacked on during committee hearings. City and county officials in North Idaho — as well as around the state — said the legislation would punish responsible government budgets while doing little to impact property tax relief.

“I’ve always been opposed to 409, and I’m not alone on this,” Kootenai County Commissioner Chris Fillios said Thursday. “If the Legislature believes people are overtaxed, they need to change the tax formula. They need to bring forward legislation that tries to help people, and not bring forward bills that hamstring governments that are already demonstrating fiscal responsibility.”

Under current code, taxing entities are allowed to increase tax bills by up to 3 percent each year. HB 409 would have frozen 2019 taxes on all districts except school taxing districts. It’s a bill that, by the end of its life, received vocal opposition from both sides of the aisle.

“HB 409 failed on the Senate floor,” Sen. David Nelson (D-Moscow) said in a statement, “because it was trying to fix the wrong problem. Our residential property taxes are going up because they are increasing at a much faster rate than commercial property. They are not increasing because our cities and counties are wasteful and inefficient.”

Moyle did not respond to a request to comment for this story.

“I understand what the House was trying to do,” Fillios added, “but I think they were overreacting to the anger of a legislator because of what is happening in Ada County. To me, there was no rationale for that. I commend the Senate for stopping this.”