Boise City Council to ask voters for $11 million tax increase. Here’s why
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- Boise City Council will vote on placing an open space levy on the ballot.
- If approved, property owners would pay $10 more per $100K in property value.
- Levy funds would expand parks and open space.
Update (July 16, 2025): The Boise City Council approved putting the levy before voters.
The Boise City Council was set to vote Tuesday on whether to put an $11 million open-space levy on the ballot this November.
Council members planned to decide on a resolution that asks Boise voters for a voluntary tax increase. Property owners would see just under $10 more on their tax bill for every $100,000 of property value, according to a memo from Mayor Lauren McLean’s office.
Boise staff have used previous open-space levy money to acquire property at Table Rock in the Foothills and buy land within the city for new parks.
“(Without a new levy) we would have very limited ability to expand our open space, conservation, and parks and pathways program,” Council President Colin Nash said in a phone interview Monday. “Waiting on new developers to propose new parks that they would dedicate is not a realistic way to acquire new parks.”
Only a simple majority of voters would need to approve the levy. Levies in 2001 and 2015 passed with 59% and 74% approval, respectively.
As of June, there’s only about $1 million of previous levy funding left, according to Doug Holloway, the city’s outgoing parks and recreation director. The 2015 levy originally raised $10 million, which the city used to acquire nearly 1,800 acres in the Foothills and purchase three future park sites, Holloway told the City Council on June 10.
“Dirt is hard to come by in this community,” Holloway said.
Overall, since 2001, the city has used about $19 million to buy properties worth at least $43 million, he said.
The money has also funded carbon sequestration research and goathead mapping and removal, according to his presentation.
People who live in Boise love the parks and trails, Council Member Kathy Corless said in a phone interview Monday. It’s healthy not to have all parts of the city developed, she said.
“Once (open space) is gone, we won’t have access,” Corless said.
Part of the goal is to address a lack of parks in West Boise, according to Corless, Nash and Alexis Pickering, the executive director of Conservation Voters for Idaho. The group is supporting the levy, as it did with the previous tax increase in 2015.
Idahoans have been loud in their support for public lands in recent weeks because of provisions U.S. Sen. Mike Lee kept trying to insert in President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” Lee, R-Utah, proposed selling some public lands, stating the proceeds would help to address housing affordability. However, the bill did not include any language requiring such housing to be affordable.
After public outcry, part of Idaho’s congressional delegation opposed the bill. The provision was ultimately removed.
Pickering said by phone Monday that she believes the widespread opposition to the provision makes it more likely people will approve this levy if the council puts it on the ballot.
“I also think it demonstrates to folks that we can’t take these lands for granted,” Pickering said. “We can’t just assume that folks are always going to be looking out for what we believe are inherent values and interests, because clearly, that’s not the case.”
This story was originally published July 15, 2025 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Boise City Council to ask voters for $11 million tax increase. Here’s why."
