Why did Idaho school district property taxes fall while total property taxes rose?

From 2018 to 2025, the years the Tax Commission’s levy breakdown covers, property taxes levied for Idaho’s School category fell from $571.9 million to $404.4 million, a change of 29.3%. Over the same span the Total row grew from $1.9 billion to $2.3 billion, a change of 19.7%.

The School category was highest in 2019 at $619.8 million; by 2025 it fell 34.7% from that year. School’s own share of the statewide total fell from 29.9% in 2018 to 17.7% in 2025.

The levy is broken out by the type of taxing district approving it. In 2025 the largest categories were City at $705.0 million, County at $682.4 million and School at $404.4 million. These are every category the table carries, and together they make up the $2.3 billion Total row.

Ranked by dollars added rather than by percent, because a small category can post a large percent change without moving the statewide total, these categories grew the most from 2018 to 2025.

Added together, City, County, Fire and Roads & Highways grew by $476.6 million, more than School’s $167.5 million decline. A statewide total can rise even with one falling category when other categories grow enough to outweigh it.

The Tax Commission also publishes a statewide average property tax rate, urban and rural, as a percent of taxable value. It is a longer series than the levy breakdown above.

From 2011 to 2025 the average urban rate fell from 1.5% to 0.7%, a change of 55.4%. The rural rate fell from 1.0% to 0.4%, a change of 57.0%.

Over 2018 to 2025, the years both series cover, the urban rate went from 1.4% to 0.7% while the levy total rose. A rate is a levy divided by taxable value, so the taxable value behind the rate grew faster than the levy did over those years.

The homeowner’s exemption shields part of an owner-occupied home’s taxable value from the levy. It was $100,000 in 2018; it rose to $125,000 in 2021, and has held at $125,000 through 2025. The full history since 1980 is on Idaho property taxes.

The Legislature’s own bill records list 21 laws enacted in the 2018 to 2025 sessions whose titles name property tax, with the short title the Legislature gives each. The levy table records what each category of district levied, not which law changed it, so the list is the Legislature’s record of what it enacted on the subject and nothing more.

Source: Idaho Legislature Bills, Resolutions and Memorials, the Legislature’s session bill index.

Both figures come from the same Idaho State Tax Commission table, which breaks the property tax levy down by the type of taxing district approving it: School, City, County, Fire and a dozen more. A Total row is the sum of every category, so a category can fall while the total rises when other categories grow enough to outweigh it.

The Tax Commission’s table records what each category of district levied, not why. Nothing the Commission publishes with it names the statute or budget decision behind the pattern above, and the laws listed above are the Legislature’s record of what it enacted on the subject, not an attribution.

The Tax Commission publishes its own annual report, which is the place to read the law and methodology behind these figures in the Commission’s own words.

The levy category breakdown itself covers 2018 to 2025 only; earlier editions of the report published it as a chart, not a table, so this comparison cannot be extended further back.