So, have you wondered about the numbers behind the changes by taxing district paid on your Lake Chelan property in 2008 versus 2009? I have! Of course, I end up with a headache if I think about it for very long.
First, thanks to the County Assessor’s and Treasurer’s Offices for providing us, the voters, with that information on our statements. County Assessor Russ Griffith also provided us this Summary of Tax Changes by District for the Chelan Basin.
But, when I started to look at it, my brain started to hurt! The first number, the STATE portion of the tax, went up 17%. How can that be, if the taxing amount increase limit is just 1% per year? That answer took a bit of research, and again, thanks for help from Assessor Griffith.
The increases are caused by:
- 1% increase allowed by law and taken by most taxing districts.
- Voter approved bonds or levies.
- New Construction adding to the tax base
- Shifts from the rest of Chelan County to the Lake Chelan Basin due the last year’s revaluations.
- A shift in the share of the State tax paid by Chelan County due to it becoming a larger share of all assessed valuation in the state (this particularly impacts the state portion of the property tax).
Those new Chelan area valuations increased the whole county’s share of the state tax. But, guess what, the Chelan area is the only part of the county that even had increased valuations last year (excepting new construction county wide). The levy rate for the state portion actually decreased, from $2.64/$1000 valuation to $2.44/$1000 valuation. That still contributed to the 17% increase in the Chelan area. But guess what, the rest of the county saw a decrease in their tax paid to the state. That explains my tax reductions on properties in the county, but not in the Chelan area.
Do the actual amounts you are paying for voter approved levies concur with the claims made by the taxing districts? Lake Chelan Schools increased their M&O levy by 8% this year. The LCSD Bond is a 31% increase. Fire District 7 took more of their voter approved levy for another 7% increase this year. Manson Parks and Recreation’s bond is a 45% increase while Manson Schools increased 2% on both their M&O Levy and bond.
Apparently the Veteran’s Relief and Mental Health parts of the tax are done on some sort of a state prescribed system. Both show substantial increases, yet apparently both programs are lacking funding due to cutbacks in other revenue sources. County Road expenses are up 24% to Chelan area taxpayers. Folks in incorporated areas don’t pay those taxes, so the residents of the Chelan basin outside of Chelan are picking up a much larger share of the county road pie.
Steve Byquist will have an interview with Assessor Griffith on GoLakeChelan.com!
But, there’s more! Also attached are several Tax by District Summary Sheets which show taxing by district in more detail, including totals. There is a bunch of good information but it appears virtually impossible to figure out the specifics of why each number ends up the way it does. Does our property tax code seem to be too complicated, much like our income tax code?
I think the assessor’s office would list this new information under TRANSPARENCY….only problem being it is layered under so many complicated formulas, twists and turns that the taxpayer says forget it….just what the tax people want….how do we get clarity?…I don’t know and that makes me sad and mad….but never fear your property tax will continue to rise…that is the one thing you can count on….
chelangal,
I think the Assessor’s office is being very open with the information and is being transparent. This information came from the Assessor.
I’m pretty good with math, and the property tax formulas are amazingly complex. There are lots of taxing districts and they all have different twists and regulations in how they work.
From what I’ve learned, it is so complex that to try to understand specifically what happened from the final numbers district by district is impossible.
The Assessor does put out a levy book that helps explain it each year. If someone wanted to know badly enough just how a particular taxing agency’s taxes were calculated, I’m sure it would be available. It just might not have much to do with what changed for any other taxing district.
I would venture that the regulations they are following to calculate property taxes in Chelan County are hundreds or thousands of pages.
Al
I don’t care what math is correct or incorrect. It comes down to common sense! To rely on math and numbers alone only proves the nonsense that this is all about. Here is a little common sense. There is a large population of Chelan that are vacation homes. Homes that are not occupied a large portion of the year. Basically providing the Chelan area a tax infusion without having to provide full services. I am guessing this math has not been added to the existing formula. There is also no common sense in hammering people that lived in the area a major portion of there lives with math numbers that basically force them out of the area! To the people that are elected and to the people that defend the tax I say get a brain and get away from the math and start thinking logically. I thought our government was “for the people , of the people”? This is all about government gone wrong and not thinking about the people! I am guessing that none of our elected officials have had a history lesson on “The Boston Tea Party”? If they had they would have fought for the people!
Please tell me how a 1/2 acre lot can go from 40,000. to 150,000!!! It’s just off wapito lake road, but not on wapito lake. I read about all these people complaining about their taxes doubling, but mine went up allmost 4 times.. And I’m allmost a senier citizen. Is there any way to get our propertie revaluated??? Thanks for your time———- George & Dorithy Martin
George & Dorithy,
There was an appeal period after the revaluations were sent out last year. Your appeal had to be filed before the deadline which is now passed. There were a huge number of appeals this year, but only a small percentage resulted in changes.
The valuations are based on “fair market value” so an argument to change the value would be based on appraisal type of information like comparable sales. However, if there is an error, something like a portion of your property not being usable due to terrain or something the Assessor’s office might not know, it might be worth discussing with them. I do not know what flexibility they might have at this point in addressing errors.
There are several attempts at property tax reform underway this year, two initiatives and a bunch of bills in the legislature. Searching for “Property tax” in this blog will bring you up to date of most of them!
Thanks,
Al
I was told by a Chelan County Comissioner that funding had been provided to the Assessor’s office more than three years ago for the software to do assessments on a yearly basis. Would someone please explain why it takes three years to install a software program on a computer? It seems to me that this whole problem is not with the state law , but with the inability of the assessor’s office to do it’s job. I’m really looking forward to the next election.
Big Lar that is the same information I have been given by the assessor…he also told me that the software actually is loaded , but not ready to use for the annual assessment process…supposedly the staff is limited (hmmmm, I have yet to see a gov’t agency that is understaffed – they believe they are, but not reality), undertrained (there are a couple other counties that have been using the program for a few years and they are willing to share, but our assessor doesn’t want it done that way – he wants to hire the owners of the software to send their training teams….and it goes on and on…these are all comments I was told in person by the assessor…when I challenged him with gees, you come up for reelection in a couple years, let’s see if we keep the bulk of the tax burden in Chelan/Manson & Leavenworth areas and the majority of the voters are in Wenatchee area (which won’t be revalued until after election)….than you can tell the uninformed voters how experienced and how concerned you are and so put the experienced man back in….Russ be sure and tell them, like I was told by your office, that I can sell and move to Bridgeport…tax payers we have the ability to vote change in the leadership AND vote down levies…look at how much of your property tax dollar goes to special levies….we keep getting forced to operate on less money, but special levies gives these district more money (I.e. fire district #7 and Manson parks)….your decision..