Kootenai County Assessor Bèla Kovacs said he intends to tax a tax-exempt property owned by the city of Post Falls.

Kovacs announced his intentions to the Post Falls City Council during the public comment portion of Tuesday night’s regular meeting, noting that he was speaking in his capacity as assessor. 

The assessor pointed to a 4.11-acre parking lot adjacent to Cabela’s in Post Falls, which the city has owned since 2012.

“We’re going to make sure that, when we assess the value, that it will not be exempt, because in Idaho state law, government-owned property is exempt,” Kovacs told city leaders. 

Post Falls Mayor Ron Jacobson immediately pushed back. 

“I will anxiously wait to see what the decision is when you opt to take a piece of property owned by the city that is non-taxable and try to assess taxes on it,” he told Kovacs. 

In 2012, Jacobson said, the city intended to set the property aside for a future Citylink route expansion. That expansion did not come to fruition and the city does not use the parking lot, he said.

Kovacs told city leaders that Cabela’s routinely challenges the assessed value of the business’ property in Post Falls and sued over the assessments in some cases. He said county commissioners have not given his office enough money to defend the lawsuits, forcing his office to settle and lose out on about $260,000 in property taxes. 

Since the city of Post Falls took ownership of the parking lot in 2012 and it became exempt from taxation, Kovacs said the county has not collected an estimated $360,000 in taxes on the property. 

Kootenai County Commissioner Bruce Mattare said Kovacs had not raised the topic with commissioners before his public comments. 

“When I heard him speak about the property (during Tuesday’s meeting), it was the first time I had understood this to be an issue,” he said. 

Mattare added that commissioners have funded the legal defense for lawsuits the assessor has faced so far. 

It’s unclear how Kovacs intends to tax the city-owned property. The assessor did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday. 

Under Idaho law, “property belonging to any county or municipal corporation” is exempt from taxation. The property Kovacs identified, which is surrounded on all sides by privately-owned property, is classed as exempt, according to county records. 

Kovacs told city councilors that Idaho’s Constitution requires all taxes to be uniform and state law mandates that “the actual and functional use” of a property “shall be a major consideration when determining marketing value for assessment purposes.” Jacobson said the city’s legal counsel believes Kovacs’ argument doesn’t pass muster. 

    Jacobson
  

    Mattare