PORT ANGELES — Despite the fact that assessed property values in Clallam County fell by more than $500,000 in 2011, the Clallam County Treasurer’s Office will bill property owners $1.66 million more this year than last year.
County Treasurer Selinda Barkhuis said her office will bill a total of $77.21 million in property taxes, compared with the $75.55 million it billed in 2011 and the $71.73 million billed in 2010.
The reason property taxes went up when values dropped is because the tax is a combination of assessed property value and the various levies that exist where a piece of property is located.
For example, voters in the Port Angeles School District approved a maintenance and operations levy last February that increased this year’s levy rate from $2.43 per $1,000 assessed valuation to $2.88 per $1,000.
Olympic Medical Center increased its revenue by the maximum amount allowed by law without voter approval: 1 percent.
“The levy itself is the amount of money that [taxing districts] are collecting, and normally, they do not collect less than they collected the year before,” Clallam County Assessor Pam Rushton said in a series of interviews last month.
Property tax bills will be mailed to property owners by the end of this month. The first half-payment is due April 30.
The Clallam County Assessor’s Office adjusts the value of all property in the county every year.
One-sixth of the county is physically inspected while the rest is adjusted using a computer-assisted market analysis.
Clallam County property values have been trending down with the bad economy in recent years, Rushton said.
The value of all property in the county was:
■ $8.59 billion in 2008.
■ $8.24 billion in 2009.
■ $8.03 billion in 2010.
■ $7.50 billion in 2011.
“We’re seeing the entire county on a downward trend,” Rushton said.
In Port Angeles, the median value of a single family home went from $170,646 in 2010 to $154,535 last year.
Sequim property values dropped from $205,080 in 2010 to $191,483 in 2011.
The median price of a Forks dwelling fell slightly, from $111,619 in 2010 to $111,231 in 2012, according to numbers provided by Rushton.
Jefferson County Assessor Jack Westerman III said the median value of property there was about $167,000.
Using $160,000 as a baseline for the region, property tax bills have rising at a slow-but-steady pace in Clallam County.
In Port Angeles, the owner of a $160,000 piece of property was billed $1,566 for 2010 taxes, $1,637 in 2011 and $1,785 this year.
Port Angeles residents were subject to the school levy and 1 percent increases from the state levy, county general fund levy, county road levy and hospital levy.
The owner of a $160,000 piece of property in Sequim paid $1,346 in property taxes in 2010, $1,481 in 2011 and will receive a $1,613 tax bill this year.
Sequim residents were subject to 1 percent increases from the state levy, county general fund levy, county road levy, city levy, hospital levy and fire district levy.
A $160,000 Forks property generated $1,779 in 2010 property taxes, $1,823 in 2011 taxes and $1,886 in taxes this year.
Forks residents were subject to 1 percent increases from the state levy, county general fund levy, county road levy, city levy, hospital levy and fire district levy.
In unincorporated Clallam County west of Joyce, property tax on a $160,000 home has gone from $1,092 in 2010 to $1,232 in 2011 to $1,323 this year.
In both Agnew and Bell Hill, property tax on a $160,000 home has risen from $1,303 in 2010 to $1,450 in 2011 to $1,590 this year.
County residents were subject to 1 percent increases from the state levy, county general fund levy, county road levy, hospital levy and fire district levies.
Barkhuis noted that a home worth $160,000 in 2009 would almost certainly be worth less now — roughly $156,000 in 2010 and $146,000 in 2011.
The owner of a $146,000 home would pay less property tax than the owner of a $160,000 home in every taxing district in Clallam County.
“Decreased assessed values, especially when combined with increased tax revenues to be collected, is why levy rates go up, so the change in assessed value must be considered when comparing taxes paid from year to year,” Barkhuis said.
Barkhuis provided the following breakdown of where the property tax collected by the Treasurer’s Office will go:
■ $19.2 million, or 24.7 percent, to school bonds and maintenance and operation levies.
■ $17.7 million, or 22.8 percent, to state schools.
■ $9.7 million, or 12.5 percent, to the Clallam County general fund.
■ $8.4 million, or 10.8 percent, to fire districts.
■ $6.6 million, or 8.5 percent, to the Clallam County road fund.
■ $6.1 million, or 7.9 percent, to the cities of Port Angeles, Sequim and Forks.
■ $4.2 million, or 5.4 percent, to hospital districts.
■ $3.8 million, or 4.8 percent, to the North Olympic Library System.
■ $1.4 million, or 1.8 percent, to the Port of Port Angeles.
■ $465,000, or 0.6 percent, to the William Shore Memorial Pool District.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
