Bill on modified LIDs dies

The House Revenue & Taxation Committee today voted unanimously to hold a bill that would have allowed city councils and county commissions to exclude people from modified local improvement districts.

Lynn Tominaga of the Lindsey Lateral Water Users Association presented House Bill 617, which he said would give older irrigation districts greater ability not only to fund needed upgrades but also to allow people to opt out.

The gravity-based Lindsey system is old, decreasingly effective given the area’s mature trees, and in need of replacement with a pressure system, he said.

Rep. Leon Smith, R-Twin Falls, made the motion to hold the bill in committee. He said that although he has owned properties with irrigation challenges and “it can be a dogfight to get out” of a proposed district, the bill needs more work before it becomes a statewide law.

After the hearing, Tominaga said he would not come back to the Legislature with another bill. Members of the Lindsey Lateral Water Users Association probably will move ahead with plans for a local improvement district under existing law, but on a smaller scale compared to the proposed district that the Boise City Council denied last year, he said.

House Bill 617 would have allowed the sponsoring governing body, such as a city council, an option to exclude property owners from a modified local improvement district. Current law allows inclusions and exclusions only if all property owners agree unanimously.

Several residents of the Lindsey district testified against the bill, saying the modified local improvement district would be too expensive for a substantial number of residents, as the Boise City Council determined last year under current law. The new proposal would give too much power to the council to determine who can be excluded, they said.

Idaho Association of Counties lobbyist Kerry Ellen Elliott said the bill raised procedural fairness questions.