Plant Facilities and the Other School Levies

Supplemental levies (lesson 5) pay for people and programs. Bonds (lesson 7) borrow for big buildings. Everything else a school district can put on a tax bill is in this lesson, starting with the one voters see most after those two: the plant facilities levy. It is pay-as-you-go construction money, and its approval threshold moves with the district's debt load, which makes it the most arithmetic-heavy question on an Idaho ballot.

The plant facilities reserve levy

Idaho Code 33-804 lets a board that has created a school plant facilities reserve fund ask voters for a levy "not to exceed four-tenths of one percent (.4%) of market value for assessment purposes in each year," using value as of December 31 of the previous year, "for a period not to exceed ten (10) years." The fund itself is created by board resolution under 33-901.

The ballot question and the election notice must state the dollar amount to be collected each year of the period, the percentage of yes votes needed to approve it, and the purposes the money will be used for. The election is held on a 34-106 date, May or November, and run by the county clerk under Title 34. Because it is a levy, the 34-914 disclosures from lesson 5 also apply: cost per $100,000 of taxable value, term, and the rules on mentioning state money.

The sliding threshold

The approval percentage depends on what the district's total levy for plant facilities plus bonded debt would be, as a share of market value for assessment purposes on December 31 of the year before the election:

Combined plant facilities and bond levy, as a share of market value	Yes votes needed	33-804 paragraph
Less than 0.2 percent	55 percent	1
0.2 percent or more, less than 0.3 percent	60 percent	2
0.3 percent or more	Two-thirds (66 2/3 percent)	3

The logic is plain once you see it. A district that already carries heavy bond debt is asking more of its taxpayers when it adds a facilities levy, so it needs broader agreement. A district with little or no debt can use a 55 percent levy to save for buildings instead of borrowing. Moscow's plant facilities question on the November 3, 2026 ballot, $65.6 million over seven years, needs 60 percent, according to the Idaho Capital Sun, while the other four on that ballot need 55.

Changing a levy mid-stream

If voters approve a levy for fewer than ten years, or at less than 0.4 percent, the board may go back to voters "in the same manner as before" to increase the years, the levy or both, up to the maximums. If the increase passes, the new terms replace the old. If it fails, the original terms stand. A bond approved after a plant facilities levy does not change that levy's terms while it runs.

Subsection 4 of 33-804 has a rarely used escape hatch. In a fiscal year when the Department of Education certifies that statewide per-support-unit funding for salary-based apportionment and discretionary funds has gone down, a board may ask voters to convert some or all of a plant facilities levy into a supplemental levy for the lesser of two years or the remaining term. Conversion needs only a majority, the converted years count against the plant facilities term, and if voters say no, the original levy is untouched. The Tax Commission's 2026 training lists this as the "Supplemental Transfer from existing Plant Facilities."

The safe schools version: up to twenty years

Idaho Code 33-804A, added in 2000, lets a plant facilities levy run longer than ten years, up to twenty, when the board determines that all or part of the money will "abate, repair or replace school facilities with unsafe or unhealthy conditions." The ballot and notice must state the yearly dollar amount for those safety repairs. Everything else in 33-804, including the sliding thresholds, still applies. The section also ties into the state's school building safety rules: a district whose independent inspection finds code failures it cannot fix from current income becomes eligible for the Idaho safe schools facilities loan program administered by Idaho banks.

What plant facilities money may pay for

Under 33-901, money in the reserve fund may be spent for the purposes listed in 33-1102, the same list that governs bonds: buying or improving school sites, building schools and other buildings, demolishing buildings, adding to, remodeling or repairing existing buildings, furnishing and equipping them (including lighting, heating, ventilation and sanitation), buying school buses, and renewable energy systems. The reserve fund may also pay lease and lease-purchase agreements for those purposes and repay commercial loans for construction, with two limits written into 33-901: remodeling must be estimated to cost more than $5,000, and a lease-purchase agreement may not run past the end of the plant facilities levy that supports it. It cannot pay teacher salaries or other operating costs; those belong to the general fund and the supplemental levy.

Plant facilities levies have had a rough stretch at the polls. In May 2026, according to Idaho Education News' unofficial results, four of five failed: American Falls (about $7.8 million a year on average, 10 years) got 51 percent against 55 needed; Lakeland ($15 million, 5 years) about 43 percent; Payette ($19.5 million, 10 years) about 36 percent; Kimberly ($5 million, 10 years) about 35 percent. North Gem's $1 million, 10-year levy passed with 60 percent. In November 2025, Murtaugh ($1.75 million, 76 percent) and Teton ($2.6 million, 75 percent) passed, while Kimberly's $5 million levy missed by one point, 54 percent against 55, and Filer's $3 million levy drew about 40 percent.

Levies a board can set without an election

Several school levies need no vote. Each has a narrow purpose, and most have a limit.

The emergency fund levy for enrollment growth

Idaho Code 33-805 lets a growing district collect money for students who arrived after the state's funding count. Before the second Monday of September, the board compares average daily attendance with the same period of the year before. If attendance is up, it divides its foundation program allowance from the last annual report by the average daily attendance on that report, multiplies by the number of added students, and certifies the result to the county commissioners. Under 63-805(3) the commissioners levy it, but never more than six-hundredths of one percent (0.06 percent) of taxable value. The Tax Commission's training lists the cap as a rate of 0.0006.

There is no vote, but there is notice. The district must publish a "Notice of Property Tax Increase by School Board" once a week for two weeks after the board acts, in the newspaper of largest paid circulation in the county. The notice form in the statute still uses a "typical home of $50,000," farm of $100,000 and business of $200,000, values set decades ago.

Tort, judgment, tuition and the rest

• Tort and liability. Idaho Code 6-927 lets every political subdivision levy what it needs for a liability plan, by buying insurance or otherwise, and the money may be used for nothing else. The Tax Commission lists no rate limit, and its 2026 training places this levy among school funds that remain subject to the 3 percent budget cap in 63-802. If a district has no insurance and no money to pay a tort judgment, 6-928 requires it to levy for the judgment "at the earliest time possible."
• Judgments. 33-802(1) requires levies sufficient for maturing bond, interest and judgment obligations. A separate levy under 63-1305 repays property taxes that the Board of Tax Appeals or a court orders refunded.
• Tuition. Idaho Code 33-1408 lets a district levy above its regular authority to pay tuition for its students whom the board authorizes to attend school in another Idaho district. It is exempt from 63-802. Small districts that send high schoolers to a neighbor use it.
• Migrant farm worker children. 33-803 allows up to 0.1 percent of market value in a district with a farm labor camp, with a majority vote required if the total of this levy and other M&O levies would top 0.6 percent. The Tax Commission says the levy has never been used.
• Cooperative service agencies. Under 33-317, two or more districts that form a cooperative service agency may ask their voters for a levy up to 0.1 percent for up to ten years (majority vote) and a facilities levy up to 0.4 percent for up to ten years (66 2/3 percent vote), held in each member district.
• Budget stabilization. A 2006 levy under 33-802(2) for districts that received no state equalization money that year. The Tax Commission's 2026 training lists four with fixed maximums: Blaine $29,521,352, McCall-Donnelly $5,658,712, Swan Valley $133,871 and Avery $117,520.
• The state-ordered payment under 33-909. When the state's cooperative funding program pays to fix an unsafe building, the district repays its share from its facilities fund money for up to 20 years. The Tax Commission lists a "state-authorized plant facilities" entry for these, certified by the Department of Education.

The state's facilities money

Since 2023 the Legislature has poured money into school buildings and into paying down school property taxes. The programs below matter, and one old one is gone.

School District Facilities Fund (2023)

Created by House Bill 292 and set out in 33-911, this fund is distributed per pupil each August and must be used in place of property tax in a fixed order: pre-July 2025 bonds, 33-909 payments, newer bonds, temporary supplementals, then plant facilities levies. Whatever remains may pay for construction, renovation or maintenance, secure or pay a new facilities bond, make extra payments on existing bonds, pay lease-purchase agreements, or go into a facilities reserve. So yes, this money may pay down bonds, and for districts with bonds it must go there first. For fiscal year 2025 the Department of Education reported $140.9 million distributed; $70.2 million reduced bond levies, $54.2 million supplementals and $4.0 million plant facilities levies, with $6.9 million spent on maintenance and $5.6 million reserved.

School Modernization Facilities Fund (2024)

House Bill 521, signed March 29, 2024, dedicated $125 million a year of sales tax to a new fund (33-912). The Idaho State Building Authority issues bonds of no more than ten years backed by that money (33-913), and each district may take its share as a lump sum from the bond proceeds or as annual payments (33-914). Shares were calculated per pupil, with at least $25,000 per district over ten years and no more than $40 million for a district with an active charter M&O or charter supplemental levy (33-915). The Department of Education said $1 billion reached districts by the end of February 2025 and another $91.6 million on April 22, 2025.

Strings come with it. Before getting the money, a district must submit a ten-year facilities plan (33-916 and 33-918), attest that it meets the State Board's minimum instructional days or hours, and attest compliance with the dignity and nondiscrimination rules in 33-138, including not requiring job applicants to sign diversity statements. Under 33-917, the money must go to facilities "directly related to the school district's core educational mission," never to facilities with "a primary athletic purpose," and misused money must be returned. Districts that chose annual payments must follow the 33-911 order, which starts with bonds. For lump sums, the statute lists construction, renovation and maintenance uses but does not mention paying off existing bonds; ask the Department of Education how it treats a specific plan.

The end of bond levy equalization

For years, the state paid part of the bond costs of districts with lower property wealth through the bond levy equalization support program in former 33-906. House Bill 521 repealed 33-906, 33-906A and 33-906B. To soften the change, 33-911(7) guaranteed each district with a qualifying bond passed before January 1, 2024 at least what equalization would have paid, for fiscal years 2025 and 2026 only, out of the facilities fund. The program survives only as a formula: 33-909 still caps a district's repayment share under the unsafe-buildings program "as if such program still existed." A district passing a bond today gets no equalization help; its help comes through the per-pupil facilities funds instead.

Program	Created	Funding	How districts get it	Can it pay down bonds?
School District Facilities Fund	2023 (HB 292); expanded 2024 and 2025	3.25 percent of sales tax, lottery dividends, $50M a year added by HB 304 (2025), other transfers	Per pupil, by August 31 each year	Yes; bonds come first in the 33-911 order
School Modernization Facilities Fund	2024 (HB 521)	$125M a year of sales tax backing state building authority bonds	Lump sum or annual amounts, after a ten-year plan and attestations	Annual amounts follow 33-911; lump sums go to construction, renovation and maintenance
Cooperative funding program	2006 (33-909)	Cooperative fund, by appropriation	Application to a state panel for unsafe buildings	Pays the project; district repays its share over up to 20 years
Bond levy equalization	Former 33-906	Repealed by HB 521 (2024)	Hold-harmless only for FY2025 and FY2026	No longer exists

Every school levy in one table

Levy	Approval	Maximum length	Limit	Uses	Statute
Bond and interest	Two-thirds to authorize the bond	Until paid; each issue 30 years or less	Bond total up to 5 percent of market value (2 percent for some districts), less debt	Principal and interest	33-802(1), 33-1103, 33-1107; Const. art. VIII, sec. 3
Temporary supplemental	Majority	2 years	Dollar amount on ballot; no rate limit	General fund operations	33-802(3)
Indefinite supplemental	Majority	Indefinite	Dollar amount on ballot	General fund operations	33-802(5)
Charter district M&O and supplemental	Per charter; majority for a supplemental	Per charter	Per charter (Boise M&O formula per Tax Commission)	Operations	33-802(4), (6)
Plant facilities	55, 60 or 66 2/3 percent	10 years	0.4 percent of market value a year	33-1102 purposes, leases, construction loans	33-804, 33-901
Safe school plant facilities	55, 60 or 66 2/3 percent	20 years	Same as plant facilities	Abate, repair or replace unsafe or unhealthy facilities	33-804A
Plant facilities converted to supplemental	Majority	Lesser of 2 years or remaining term	Up to 100 percent of the plant facilities amount	Operations, only in a year of certified statewide funding decline	33-804(4)
Emergency fund	None; published notice	One year at a time	0.06 percent of taxable value	Costs of added students	33-805, 63-805(3)
Tort and liability	None	Annual	No rate limit; subject to 63-802 per Tax Commission	Liability insurance or plan	6-927, 6-928
Judgment and refund	None	As needed	Amount owed	Court judgments, ordered tax refunds	33-802(1), 63-1305
Tuition	None	Annual	No rate limit; exempt from 63-802	Tuition for students sent to another district	33-1408
Migrant worker children	Majority only if combined M&O tops 0.6 percent	Annual	0.1 percent of market value	Educating children from a farm labor camp	33-803
Cooperative service agency	Majority (operations); 66 2/3 percent (facilities)	10 years	0.1 percent; 0.4 percent for facilities	Shared services and facilities	33-317
Budget stabilization	None (2006 authority)	Annual	Fixed maximum per district	Four districts only	33-802(2)

How it all stacks on your bill

Your county treasurer's bill lists each taxing district and its levy rate. School districts may show one combined line or several. Next to the school lines you will find the facilities fund relief line that 33-911(4) requires. Reading a Tax Bill in the local government course explains the whole bill; course 35, lesson 5 shows how school levies fit into the statewide total, and Who Pays the Increment explains how urban renewal areas affect school levies.