$317.4 million of property tax relief is on the way.

A lot of bills were important last session. Yes, we needed a bill limiting boys bathrooms at schools to biological males. Girls will use the biological girls’ bathroom, and no, it is not possible to convert a boy to a girl and vice versa. That concept is merely insanity.

Yes, we made child genital mutilation a felony.

I also voted to make it harder to distribute obscene materials to children at government owned libraries, and I voted for the firing squad as an alternate method to carry out the death penalty in Idaho.

But the issue voters asked me the most about was property taxes. The best property tax relief is your local governments cutting their budgets, but I absolutely prioritized some form of relief from the state government.

And even though the governor vetoed our House Bill 292, I helped convince fellow senate Republicans to override his veto with a unanimous 28 Republican senators voting in favor versus the 7 Democrats against.

This is real tax relief because you already pay state sales tax and income taxes, and we used some of those taxes to route back to your local governments to pay part of your property tax bill.

You will save money every year from H292, and it is a particularly good bill because whenever there is a surplus of tax revenues to the state over what we have budgeted to spend, the surplus will automatically add to the property tax relief by being diverted there. Instead of the state spending your money on growing government when they tax too much, the state will now use this tax revenue to pay part of your property taxes.

The numbers are in, and this year we will see $317.4 million in property tax relief. All property owners will get a share, but homeowners will see the most – 81%. Literally, when you get your property tax bill in November, you should see a credit from the state paying part of your bill, and the savings should be 10-25% of your total bill.

But, there is more. Part of the property tax relief will go to the local public school districts so that they can reduce the amount they ask from you for plant and facilities levies or maintenance and operations levies. I just received today how much money our 3 school districts in North Idaho will receive from H292.

Lake Pend Oreille School District serving the Sandpoint and Clark Fork areas has an average daily student attendance of 3,747 and will receive $1,397,692.74 from H292.

The Boundary County School District has 1,381 average daily students and will receive $515,136.52.

West Bonner County School District has an average daily 1,131 students and will receive $422,039.56.

H292 also eliminated the March school election date. Schools can still run levy elections in May, August and November, but this property tax relief will provide some of what they may otherwise come and ask for from the property taxpayer.