Scott Herndon for Idaho (2026)

07/06/2026

Yesterday I was re-elected as Region I Chairman of the Idaho Republican Party. Region I covers Bonner, Boundary, and Shoshone counties in North Idaho. It is one of ten regions that make up the state party structure, and each region chairman serves on the IDGOP Executive Committee, which governs the party between state conventions.

Most people do not know what a region chairman does. The short version: I represent the county central committees in our region at the state level. I work with county chairs, precinct committeemen, and local volunteers to build the party from the ground up. This is not top-down politics. This is neighbors organizing with neighbors to hold their government accountable.

In two weeks, our Bonner County delegation of 17 delegates and 16 alternates will travel to Meridian for the Idaho Republican Party State Convention, June 18-20. I will serve as chairman of the Resolutions Committee and as chairman of our Bonner County delegation. And my wife Arlene, a Legislative District 1 delegate, along with a delegate from Latah County and another from Idaho Falls, will introduce platform amendments calling on the Idaho Republican Party to officially support the elimination of property taxes.

The current party platform calls only for property tax "reduction whenever possible." That language has produced no results. We are proposing to replace it with a clear call for elimination and a plan to get there. If the convention adopts these amendments, every Republican legislator in Idaho will answer to a platform that says property taxes should be eliminated, not just reduced.

This is how change happens. Not from the top down. From the ground up. From precinct committeemen to county committees to regional chairs to state conventions to the legislature. Every step matters. Every volunteer matters.

Thank you to the county chairs and committeemen of Bonner, Boundary, and Shoshone counties for your trust. Let's get to work.

06/06/2026

Imagine Idaho without property taxes.

Your home is yours. Fully. Permanently. No annual bill from the county. No notice that your assessment went up 30% because someone down the street sold their house for more than yours is worth. No fear that a fixed income and a rising tax bill will force you out of the home you raised your family in.

The retired teacher keeps her house. The young family does not have to budget for a tax bill on top of a mortgage. The widow does not lose the home she shared with her husband for 40 years because she cannot keep up with a government estimate of what it might sell for.

This is not a fantasy. This is a policy choice. The revenue to replace property taxes already exists in Idaho's growing state budget. Over the last six years, the state grew spending above inflation and population growth by $1.2 billion. Had we directed that excess spending to local taxing districts, half of property tax bills would now be paid by the state. Let us do that going forward.

I believe we can. And it is a priority of mine when I return to the Senate in January.

05/06/2026

When I served in the Idaho Senate in 2023 and 2024, I voted on over 600 bills. I had a 100% attendance record. I never missed a committee hearing, a floor session, or a vote.

I was the prime sponsor of SB 1374, which strengthened Idaho's fi****ms preemption law. The Herndon v. City of Sandpoint case went all the way to the Idaho Supreme Court. We lost at both the district court and the Supreme Court, but we identified exactly where Idaho's preemption statute had gaps. Then I wrote the bill to close some of them. There is more work to do, and I intend to finish it.

I voted for property tax relief and voted to override the governor's veto to get it passed into law. That was the first successful veto override in 16 years.

During my primary campaign, I sent back every corporate and industry PAC check I received. So far, this campaign is funded by 345 individual Idahoans, nearly all of them from right here in North Idaho. People who gave $25, $50, $100 because they believe in what we are building. That is the accountability I want.

I build custom homes for a living. My wife and I are mortgage-free. I pledge to donate my senate salary above actual costs to Bonner and Boundary County charities. I am not running for office because I need a job. I am running because I believe Idaho deserves representation that puts the people first.

Serving in the Idaho Senate is an honor, not a career.

04/06/2026

When people ask me about immigration, they are not asking about a border 1,500 miles away. They are asking about what is happening here.

Idaho has an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 illegal immigrants. According to the Idaho Freedom Foundation, the net cost to Idaho taxpayers is over $300 million a year. Emergency medical services alone cost $19 million in the last fiscal year. That is money coming directly out of Idaho's budget, money that could be going toward property tax relief, roads, or schools.

They are asking why housing prices have doubled. Why they cannot find a rental. Why the emergency room wait is longer. Why the schools are more crowded. Now you know part of the answer.

Idaho grew by over 100,000 people in just a few years. Some of that growth is Americans moving here for the quality of life. Some of it is not. And the people who were here first are paying for all of it, literally, through higher property taxes, higher rents, and longer lines for every public service.

In the Idaho Senate, I supported SJM102 in 2024, which called on the federal government to secure the border and enforce immigration law. I will continue to fight for state-level tools that protect Idaho communities from the consequences of federal failure.

This is not about being unwelcoming. It is about being honest. Growth without infrastructure is not progress. It is pressure. And Idaho taxpayers should not be footing a $300 million bill for people who are here illegally while seniors are skipping meals to pay their property taxes.

03/06/2026

A question for every Idaho homeowner: what would you do with an extra $200 a month?

That is roughly what the average Bonner County homeowner pays in property taxes. $2,400 a year for the privilege of living in a house you already paid for.

You could put it toward your kids. Toward retirement. Toward fixing the truck. Toward groceries that cost twice what they did five years ago.

Instead, it goes to your county, your city, your school district, your highway district, your fire district, your library district, and a dozen other taxing entities, all of which set their own levy, all of which assume your home is their revenue source.

The Idaho State Tax Commission counts 981 separate taxing districts in this state. Every one of them has a claim on someone's home.

I do not think 981 government entities should have the power to take your house. Do you?

02/06/2026

Idaho spent $328 million last year trying to reduce your property taxes. You still paid more than ever.

That is not a typo. According to the Idaho State Tax Commission's own report, local governments budgeted $2.5 billion in property taxes for 2025. The state used $328 million in relief funds to buy that down. After all of that relief, Idaho homeowners still paid $2.174 billion, up from $1.946 billion just two years earlier.

The state is spending more on relief every year and you are paying more every year. In 2023, the relief was $314 million and you paid $1.946 billion. In 2024, the relief was $246 million and you paid $2.08 billion. In 2025, the relief hit $328 million and you paid $2.174 billion. That is a treadmill, not a solution.

Meanwhile, Governor DeSantis just called a special session in Florida to eliminate property taxes on homesteads entirely. Florida's property tax burden has nearly doubled in seven years, from $32 billion to $60 billion. Their governor looked at that number and said enough. He is proposing to exempt the first $250,000 of every homestead from property taxes, with a schedule for full elimination.

Idaho should be leading this fight, not following. You should not have to rent your home from the government after you have paid it off. And you should not have to watch the state spend $328 million of your tax dollars every year just to slow down a system that never stops growing.

When I return to the Senate in January, property tax elimination will be my top legislative priority. Not more relief. Not more band-aids. Elimination. We have the math. We have the model. And now we have another major state moving in the same direction.

The momentum is building.

25/05/2026

STEP 3: IT'S NOT JUST DIFFERENT. IT'S UNFAIR.

Two houses on the same street. Same roads. Same police. Same fire department. Same schools.

One is assessed at $300,000. The other at $600,000. The owner of the second house pays a lot more in property tax.

For what? Did they get two fire trucks? Two sets of police patrols? Did the county pave their half of the street twice?

No. They got the same services. They just paid more for them.

Now imagine those two homeowners. The one in the $600,000 house is a retired teacher on a fixed pension. She bought her home 30 years ago for $120,000. It "appreciated" because the market moved, not because she did anything. The one in the $300,000 house is a software engineer earning $150,000 a year.

The retiree pays double the tax on half the income.

That's not progressive taxation. That's not flat taxation. It's not any kind of coherent tax policy. It's just arbitrary.

Income tax is tied to what you earn. Sales tax is tied to what you spend. Both of those have at least some connection to your ability to pay.

Property tax is tied to what a county assessor thinks your house is worth. Not what you paid for it. Not what you earn. Not what you can afford. Just what someone in a government office decided it's worth this year.

And that number changes every year, whether you asked for it or not.

A young family stretching to make their mortgage doesn't get a break because money is tight. A widow living alone in the house she shared with her husband for 40 years doesn't get a discount because her income dropped. The bill just keeps going up.

Meanwhile, a renter earning $200,000 a year pays zero property tax. Zero. Some will say the landlord passes it through in rent, but rent is set by the market, not by a tax bill. And no renter has ever lost their home because they couldn't pay a property tax bill. That's a risk only owners carry.

The tax has no connection to the services you receive. No connection to your ability to pay. No connection to any choice you made. It is a tax on a government estimate of what your home might sell for, applied to people who have no intention of selling.

That's not a tax system. That's a penalty for owning a home.

Step 4: The money to eliminate it is already there.

24/05/2026

STEP 2: UNDERSTAND WHY PROPERTY TAX IS DIFFERENT

Every tax the government collects is triggered by something you do.

You earn income; you pay income tax. You buy something; you pay sales tax. You fill your tank; you pay gas tax. You hire an employee; you pay payroll tax.

Every one of those taxes is tied to an action. To a transaction. To a choice.

Property tax is the only tax that is triggered by something you own. Not something you did. Not something you earned. Not something you bought. Just something you have.

And it never ends.

You pay sales tax once, at the register. You pay income tax once a year, on what you earned that year. But you pay property tax every single year, on the same house, forever, no matter how long ago you paid it off.

A 78-year-old widow on Social Security. A young family stretching to make their first mortgage payment. A disabled veteran on a fixed pension. None of them chose to increase their home's assessed value. None of them asked the county to reappraise their property. But every year, the bill goes up.

And if they can't pay? The government takes the house.

Not a lien. Not a garnishment. Not a penalty. The house.

That doesn't happen with income tax. The IRS can fine you, penalize you, garnish your wages. But they don't show up and take your house because you underpaid.

Property tax does.

This is not a tax. It is a condition of ownership. And the condition is: you may keep your home only as long as the government says you can afford to.

That's not private property. That's a revocable license to occupy land the government considers its own.

Step 2 is simple: understand that property tax is not like other taxes. It's worse. It's the only tax that turns ownership into a lease, and your home into collateral.

Step 3: It charges different people different rates for the same services, with no connection to income or ability to pay.

22/05/2026

STEP 1: STOP ASSUMING PROPERTY TAX HAS TO EXIST

Every time I talk about eliminating property tax, someone asks: "But how will we fund roads, police, and fire?"

As if the government would collapse without the power to take your home.

Here's what that question really reveals: people have never stopped to think about how many taxes they're already paying.

Let me help.

Every month, you pay:

PAYCHECK TAXES
— Federal income tax withholding
— State income tax withholding
— Social Security tax (6.2%)
— Medicare tax (1.45%)

HOUSING & UTILITY TAXES
— Property tax (escrowed into your mortgage)
— Federal Universal Service Fund fee on your phone bill
— State and local telecom taxes, 911 fees, and surcharges
— Utility franchise fees on your electric, gas, and water bills
— Franchise fees and digital taxes on cable and streaming

TRANSPORTATION TAXES
— Federal and state gas taxes at every fill-up
— Tolls and infrastructure surcharges
— Rideshare and taxi government assessments

CONSUMPTION TAXES
— Sales tax on nearly everything you buy
— Excise taxes on alcohol and to***co
— Amusement taxes on movies, concerts, and events

For someone earning $70,000 a year in Idaho, the total tax burden is roughly $20,000. That's a nearly 30% effective rate across all levels of government.

In 1776, American colonists paid between 1% and 1.5% of their income in total taxes. They had no income tax, no payroll tax, no corporate tax. Just tariffs and excise taxes averaging about 10% on imported goods.

They revolted.

Not because the burden was crushing, but because they refused to accept the principle that a distant government could tax them without representation.

Today, we pay 20 to 30 times what the colonists paid. And on top of all of it, we accept a tax that does something no other tax does:
It takes your home.

You can stop paying income tax, and you'll owe a penalty. You can stop paying sales tax; you'll just stop buying. But if you stop paying property tax, the government takes your house. The one you already paid for.

That's not taxation. That's serfdom. You are renting your property from the government lords.

Step 1 to eliminating property tax is simple: stop assuming it has to exist. It doesn't. Idaho's revenue is growing. The state grew spending $1.2 billion above inflation and population growth in just six years. The money is there. The only thing missing is the political will to stop treating your home as government collateral.

I'm not proposing we cut a single service. I'm proposing we stop funding services with the one tax that can make you homeless.

21/05/2026

Thank you again for yesterday's incredible result. Now, the work begins.

For the past three months, I've been sharing with you a vision for Idaho that I believe most Idahoans share: No one should have to rent their home from the county.

That's what the property tax is. A never-ending rent payment to your local government. Miss it, and they take your home. You never truly own it.

I believe Idaho can be the first state in the nation to eliminate the property tax entirely. Real private property — for the first time in our state's history.

Over the coming months, I'll be laying out exactly how we get there. The math works. The will is there. And after what we just showed on Tuesday, the momentum is undeniable.

General Election: November 3, 2026.

Scott Herndon for Idaho

07/06/2026

06/06/2026

05/06/2026

04/06/2026

03/06/2026

02/06/2026

25/05/2026

24/05/2026

22/05/2026

21/05/2026

Address

Telephone

Website

Alerts

Shortcuts

Share