Sticker shock…………
Good morning-
A beautiful morning here- brisk, clear and sunny. No new snow recently.
We’re getting some run-off during the day but it drops below freezing again
at night. The lake is still frozen over- early this morning saw an animal, probably a coyote, run all the way across on the ice to this side of the lake.
We received our tax assessment for 2008 property taxes on Friday so yours
should be arriving soon. Our 2008 tax assessment went up 46% over 2007. I
will not editorialize but I assume the 2008 assessments will generate some
discussion so thought I would start the topic. Please do add your thoughts
and comments to this by clicking on “Comments” below. Please do place your
comments here and do not send them to me personally by email. I know some of
our county commissioners look in on the website now and then so if you have
thoughts on this issue please do post them.
If you have not posted a comment on the website before, when you click on
comments it will bring up a window that requires you to be “logged in”. Just
click on the “logged in” link there and it will bring up a window that asks
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Please do participate in this discussion- that’s what this website is for!!
George
This year I decided to take a closer look at my tax statment and I see there is a space for “SR CITIZENS EXEMPTION” in the tax calculations. Does anyone know the details on this?
February 17th, 2008 at 10:22 amSenior citizens, age 61+, and meeting income requirements, are exempt from paying some voted taxes. At present time I believe the income requirement $35,000 gross and that the application for exemption must be made PRIOR to the tax bills gong out. Anyway,there is some kind of an application deadline to qualify for the tax year exemption. The assessor’s office will be able to fill you in on all the details.
February 18th, 2008 at 9:46 amThis latest tax assessment is criminal. When the county is taxing people out of their homes and property that they have worked for and paid for, that is criminal and there should be laws against such actions. They don’t hesitate to make laws to control private industry but let he government do the same and there are no laws to protect citizens from their run away spending and taxing. A prime example is government and our elected officials (our state senators) condemn the oil companies for gouging the public on oil prices but they never say that the oil companies make from 3-8 cents per gallon and our state and federal government makes upwards to 65 cents per gallon and they do nothing for that money. The property taxes are no better. Our our children going to better schools and getting better educations? No!! We in this area have to fight to get action from law inforcement when it is needed so where to our tax dollars go and what benefits to we see. I will never again vote yes for any increase in services that will affect my taxes. The government is taking enough money that they should be able to support any and all of these services. I think our commissioners need to take a long hard look at the latest increase. It is criminal to say the least!!
February 18th, 2008 at 1:25 pmNo government agency has the right to tax people out of existence.
As a reluctant resident of the west side of the Cascades, who at this time can only call Lake Wenatchee my “vacation home” [government code word for high-margin tax revenue source], I can only make this observation: the fault for these increased tax rates lies primarily at the feet of the voters who keep re-electing our current cadre of state representatives. It’s my understanding that the Chelan county commissioners are somewhat sympathetic to our plight and are reluctant participants in this debacle. The real culprits are the socialist-minded lawmakers on the other side of the mountains, who see private property as a privilege and not a basic right. So now I’m speaking [preaching] to my fellow vacation home owners whose primary zip is the Seattle area. If you voted for spending measures that increase the size of government, if you approved increased tax levies, if you re-elected an individual that promised “a chicken in every pot”, if you think the citizen initiative process is akin to anarchy while government is a stabilizing, beneficent entity, you are now reaping the seed you have unwittingly sown.
February 20th, 2008 at 9:14 amOK. I admit – that was preachy, and short of substantive suggestions. And I have no doubt some will resent my comments. But I believe there is no quick solution to this problem short of throwing out our current batch of law makers. But we can certainly contact our representatives and let them know how angry we are. George and Rob, I hope I haven’t abused this forum.
I have contacted my representative(s) local/county/state. I urge you to do the same. Increasing property assessments at this rate is not acceptable. Our reps have the ability to print their own spending money as a result. Please let your rep know they will not be getting your next vote unless the situation is addressed.
February 20th, 2008 at 10:58 amGeorge- I’m not a fan of property taxes any more than the next guy, but I am always interested in the disconnect between home owners perceptions about the value of their home (always very high, of course) and then their expectation of the value it should be assessed at.
February 21st, 2008 at 6:35 pmYou mentioned that your 2008 tax assessment went up 48% since 2007. Is this the taxes or the assessed value of your property?
Since the Chelan County Assessors reevaluates tax assessed values every 4 years, I would expect an assessed value to go up considerably more than 48% for the time period between 2003 and 2007. That’s only slightly higher than 10% a year which is certainly less than market values have gone up during this time period.
I agree with TShafer, as long as we keep electing the same ol same ol we have noone to blame but ourselves and of course KING COUNTY, who thinks they should run this state, FYI our taxes for a modest cabin at fish lake doubled this last assesment, That’s the taxes not the assesment. I trust someone in Chelan county will look into this for all our sakes, oh and by the way whatever happened to I-600 and I-601, I thought they had caps on how much taxes could be raised in any given year, Thank you liberals for gutting our only relief!
February 23rd, 2008 at 10:42 amDon’t count yourselves the only victim of this problem- all owners of “recreational property” are having the same problem. Yes, you may year-round in your ‘recreational property’, and you may have bought it for what would today be a very good price, and you may have expected to retire and live the rest of your life, flying under the radar and enjoying cheap living expenses. But alas, it is not to be. Not as long as the property you bought 20 years ago for $20k would sell today in 3 minutes for $400k.
February 24th, 2008 at 1:02 pmOur real estate taxes, for 2008, increased by 33%. We live in the woods with no lake, no county road access, no plowing, no nothing returned for our taxe revenues. We have $20,000.00 of our own snow removal equipment. We are surrounded by environmentalists and other non elected government agencies, funded by the PUD, grants and earmarks, all of which are funded by our money, a tax in addition to the real estate tax. The tax system is confiscatory. Economics 101! Real estate assessments and the resulting taxes are a tax on unrealized gain. Taxes on other unrealized gains will follow as nothing is done about this realization. Global warming is another tax raising vehicle. Though non existent since 1998, the mantra continues, and only continues for the inevitable levy of a “Carbon Tax”. Last, to highlight our Washington state government’s incompetence, the money allocated to fix the levies around Chehalis was spent elsewhere by the governor and legislature, the result being the flooding and financial catastrophe that took place recently. Dick
February 28th, 2008 at 7:14 amQuestion: who, pray tell, is going to be on the receiving end of this windfall of property tax increases resulting from the precipitous climb in land values, and what are they going to do with their jackpot winnings?
March 6th, 2008 at 7:51 amI am sorry to dissappoint, but there is no windfall. The current valuations increase our burden temporarily and when other parts of the county get re-evalauted the burden will shift again. State laws and our votes on levies limit the amount the total dollar amount can increase county wide. If there was a windfall, it would likely go to the schools as 50%+ of property taxes in Washington state go to schools.
Bill Gates and his dad would rather we have state income tax instead of property tax, any takers?
March 8th, 2008 at 9:31 amI’m not disappointed, just confused. What I know is that I am paying twice the property tax I paid last year. I assume that most everybody else in the upper valley is in the same boat, or at least close. How does our current valuations increase our tax burden only “temporarily?”
March 9th, 2008 at 9:59 amJohn (and others) the best info I can find on the web is here at the County Assessors.
http://www.co.chelan.wa.us/as/data/levy_book_2008.pdf
Unfortunately it doesn’t explain some issues as well as an older interview with the Assessor in the WBJ which is not available online.
I’m not saying your taxes will go down next year, but your share of the county’s tax burden will go down (as a %). Here’s how. Values are assessed every four years - it would be more fair to have it done every year and have smaller adjustments, but more expensive in terms of labor. This year the Uppper Valley got hit. Chelan is coming up. When they get their 4 year bump, they will be upset too. But taxes are limited by state law and the constitution how much they can go up every year. So Chelan will be paying a bigger share of the taxes.
Here’s what the cycle looks like.
Year 1 - Re-assessed values. Tax share high.
Year 2. Tax share smaller
Year 3. Tax share smaller yet
Year 4. Tax share smallest.
Year 5 Re-assessed again!
If your property values go up dramatically, like they did in the past few years, you will really notice the difference. If property values stagnate, you won’t notice much.
What if values drop? Then you have to wait 4 years for the re-assessed value to be lowered. As each part of the county is re-assessed, the re-assessed group (year 1)gets their taxes lowered. But the rest of the county is catching up! The county still has to pay for their budget and we still have to have schools. If the lowering property values lasts very long, our taxes won’t continue to lower even though values do!!
I hope this makes sense. If someone with more knowledge of tax policy than I can explain this better, or correct me, please do. I’m just a concerned citizen like the rest of you.
March 10th, 2008 at 7:48 amI feel there’s another factor in play, which helped create a “double whammy” on your tax bill. Up through the 1990s, the county assessor’s property valuations were dramatically less than true market values - to the tune of approximately a 75% discount. Starting with the 1999 tax appraisal (which was implemented in 2000), the county starting narrowing that gap. So not only did true market values go up, but the discount between assessed value and marked value narrowed as well. What tax payers saw was a huge increase was the result from the combination of two different changes. In my opinion the same effect took place in the 2004, and again here in 2008.
I know this doesn’t ease the financial pain of writing your property tax check next month, but I thought I’d share this observation.
March 10th, 2008 at 11:58 am