Assessor’s Corner: OMG, you raised my taxes 35%

Published 2:13 pm Monday, August 22, 2022

Property owners recently received new value notices and mistakenly believe that the percentage of increase in assessed value will raise their taxes the same rate.

Washington has a budget-based property tax system. Sales tax is a rate-based system which means if the price is doubled the tax is doubled. Property tax is not like that, here is a simple explanation of how the property tax system works in Washington:

There are four houses in a fire district, one blue, one red, one white, one yellow. They are all valued at $100,000 by the assessor’s office. This year the commissioners of the district are limited to levying $400 which is 1% plus new construction over last year (approximately 1.5%). The commissioners vote and certify this amount in November. The total value of the four houses is $400,000. The levy of $400 divided by the total assessed value of the district to create a levy rate of .001 or $1 per thousand of assessed value. Each house would pay $100.

Suppose this district had sales of over double the old assessed value (like Pacific County these past few years) and the assessor’s office had sent out new value notices that said each of these houses is now worth $200,000 each. The district is still limited to levying $400. The total value of the district is now $800,000. The new rate will be .0005 or $.50 per thousand and each house would still pay $100.

On the flip side suppose the value of all these houses decreased by 50% to $50,000 each (similar to what happened in 2009). The district again votes to levy the $400 allowed by law. The total assessed value of the district is now $200,000. The rate would be .002 or $2.00 per thousand and again each house would pay $100.

As you can see, the assessed value only affects the rate, not the actual taxes that are levied. The elected commissioners and council persons and board members of each district vote on the taxes each year in public meetings. There is no law that says the boards and commissions of these districts have to levy an increase. They could even vote to decrease the amounts to be levied. These public meetings are, by law published in the paper.

If you want to contact the elected people actually responsible for your property taxes, the names and contact information are available at the auditor’s office.