COEUR d'ALENE — After county commissioners blocked Kootenai County Assessor Bèla Kovacs' attempt to invalidate political rival Allyson Knapp's homestead exemption on her Rathdrum property, the assessor appealed to the Idaho Board of Tax Appeals, which affirmed the county's decision in an order issued late last week. 

"By any reasonable standard, the requirements of the homestead exemption were satisfied when (Knapp) applied for the homestead exemption in August 2022 and approval of that application by the assessor's office was proper," the board's decision said. "In short, the board finds the (Board of Equalization) properly reinstated the homestead exemption on (Knapp's) Rathdrum property for 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025." 

The decision follows a judge's dismissal of Kovacs' lawsuit challenging the results of the May 19 Republican primary election, ruling that he filed his complaint too late. 

Kovacs did not return requests for comment Tuesday. 

Knapp, a former chief deputy assessor, defeated Kovacs in the primary election, winning 65% of the vote. She's expected to run unopposed in the general election. 

Knapp first went before commissioners in December to appeal the notice of ineligibility she received from the assessor's office. 

"He's trying to say I'm not a full-time resident so I can't run against him," Knapp said at the time. "He's wrong." 

Knapp purchased a home in Rathdrum in 2018. At the time, she owned and lived in a home in Newman Lake, Wash. Public records show she never applied for a homestead exemption for the Washington property. 

In June 2022, Knapp moved to the Rathdrum home and retained ownership of both properties. She put the utilities for the Rathdrum home in her name, obtained an Idaho driver's license, registered to vote in Idaho and registered a vehicle at the Rathdrum address. 

Later that year, she applied for a homeowner's exemption on the Rathdrum property. The assessor's office approved the application, which was signed in March 2022 but not submitted or approved until August 2022. 

Kovacs said his office launched an investigation into whether the Rathdrum property qualified for a homestead exemption as Knapp's primary dwelling place in 2025, after several unidentified people told him they believed Knapp was a Washington resident. 

The assessor obtained information from the Idaho State Tax Commission regarding Knapp's income tax returns, as well as public records from Spokane County and other sources. 

"(Kovacs) concluded the homestead exemption had been improperly granted for the Rathdrum property," the decision said. 

Knapp appealed to the Kootenai County Board of Equalization. After four hearings and hundreds of pages of documentation, county commissioners upheld Knapp's homestead exemption. 

When the matter was before the BOE, Kovacs asked commissioners to compel Knapp to produce additional evidence, including records of her mailing address history dating back to 2005, records of an "internal inspection" of the Washington property and affidavits from neighbors attesting to her comings and goings. They did not do so. 

Kovacs alleged the 2022 application should not have been approved partly because the signature was dated several months before Knapp became an Idaho resident. On appeal, the Idaho Board of Tax Appeals found this immaterial because the assessor's office didn't receive the application until after Knapp moved to Rathdrum and established residency there. 

The assessor also noted that Knapp's 2022 and 2023 Idaho income tax returns reflected the Newman Lake property as her primary residence and that the Rathdrum property was used as a rental property. 

Knapp filed an amended 2023 Idaho resident return, according to the decision, which reflected the Rathdrum property as her primary residence. She said she rented a room to a family member while she also lived in the home and reported that rental income on her taxes. 

Kovacs also argued that Knapp's ownership of the Newman Lake property, the use of the Newman Lake address for business filings made in Washington, her 2022 and 2023 tax returns and her use of the property for "weekends, holidays and family events" all "strongly indicate" that she didn't abandon the Newman Lake property as her domicile and thus never established a new domicile in Rathdrum. 

The state board disagreed. 

"It is clear to the board (Knapp) took every reasonable step to establish the Rathdrum property as her domicile, or primary dwelling place, in the context of the homestead exemption," the decision said. 

The board found that the 2022 homestead application was not defective, as Kovacs alleged, but proper. 

"Short of the respondent selling the Newman Lake property, the board was strained to understand what further proof would ease (Kovacs') concerns about the status of the Rathdrum property," the decision said.