PORT ANGELES — Clallam County property values dropped by $506 million in 2011 from 2010 and have plummeted by more than a billion dollars since 2008.
Despite the drop to $7.5 billion from more than $8 billion in property values countywide, the county will collect 2.38 percent more property taxes overall in 2012, Clallam County Assessor Pamela Rushton and Treasurer Selinda Barkhuis told Clallam County commissioners in a joint report at a Monday workshop session.
Tax bills are expected to be in the mail by the end of the month.
The loss of property value represents a 6.3 percent decrease in the past year and a loss of more than a billion dollars in property values since 2008, County Administrator Jim Jones said.
“It’s our worst year yet,” Rushton added.
County property values have been declining since 2009, when property values fell by $344 million from a 2008 high of nearly $8.6 billion, Jones said.
Property values dropped again in 2010 by $212 million, he said.
Rushton explained that, despite the drop, property taxes are among the most stable source of taxes the county has.
Other revenue sources
Most of the county general fund’s shortfall is not in funding that comes from property taxes, but from sales tax, investments and other sources, she said.
“Do you have a notion of when values will stabilize? Do we have any sense of when things will bottom out?” Commissioner Jim McEntire asked the assessor.
Rushton said she didn’t know but said foreclosures have continued in the county and are still affecting property values.
The 2012 assessment and tax collection estimates are based on 2011 data, Barkhuis said.
“That means we’re always in arrears,” she said.
Values down, taxes up
Commissioner Jim McEntire said he had been asked by a constituent how it was possible that his property value dropped but he had a higher tax bill.
“It’s counter-intuitive,” McEntire said.
The basic reason why property taxes can go up when property values go down is that the total amount of property tax revenue collected is determined by voters and tax districts, not entirely by property values, Barkhuis explained in her tax bill report.
How much an individual property owner pays on an overall tax bill depends on which taxing districts the property is in and the assessed value of the property, she said.
As an example, Barkhuis said that if a property lost 6 percent of its value and taxes in its tax district increased by 10 percent, then the property owner will pay more in taxes than the previous year.
A factor in rising tax bills is a shrinking pool of money, Rushton said last month.
To arrive at a taxing district’s levy rate, the assessor takes the amount of money that must be collected for the district as well as the overall assessed value of the district and divides the assessed value into the amount.
So, if valuations fall, levy rates likely rise because there is less value to divide into, Rushton said then.
The William Shore Memorial Pool Park District, which did not change its levy this year, remains at $465,000.
However, because of a decrease in the value of homes, the total levy rate increased from 0.148 cents per $1,000 assessed value to 0.159 cents per assessed value in order to raise that amount of funds, Rushton said.
New levies
Also affecting taxes for some are two new levies that voters approved in 2011 for 2012 to replace smaller levies that expired last year.
The Port Angeles School District maintenance and operations levy will increase from $2.431 to $2.878 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
Another levy approved by voters in 2011, the Quillayute Valley School District maintenance and operations levy, will increase from $1.341 per $1,000 assessed value to $1.470 per $1,000.
In addition, Barkhuis said, many local area tax districts, such as fire districts, library districts and cities, increased their revenue by the maximum amount allowed by law without voter approval — which is 1 percent.
“If a city raised $1 million in property tax revenue one year, it can decide to raise $1.01 million the next year, regardless of whether the total value of the property in that city went up or down,” she said.
Another factor is the number of exemptions.
Exemptions are available for some seniors and disabled people, depending on their income.
Whenever one person receives a tax exemption, someone else pays more.
“Any kind of an exemption is a tax shift,” Rushton said.
There are fewer senior exemptions in 2012 than there were in 2011, Rushton said.
There are other exemptions, but the senior exemption is the only one handled through her office, she said.
Highest, lowest tax rates
The highest overall 2012 tax rate increase in the county is a 10.88 percent increase on properties located in unincorporated areas just outside of Port Angeles that have no fire district.
The lowest overall tax increase is 3.45 percent per $1,000 assessed valuation for property owners in the city of Forks.
However, Forks also has the highest overall tax rate, with 11.78646 cents per $1,000 in assessed property value.
Port Angeles, the unincorporated Port Angeles area Fire District No. 3, Cape Flattery Fire District No. 5, Beaver/Sappho-area Fire District No. 1 and Quillayute-area Fire District No. 6 each pays more than 11 cents per $1,000.
The lowest overall tax rate in the county is in Joyce, where property owners pay 7.46585 cents per $1,000 in assessed property value.
Joyce-area residents who live in Fire District Nos. 2 and 4 and unincorporated Sequim-area residents pay less than 9 cents per $1,000.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
