PORT ANGELES — How much your real property is worth has little to do with how much tax you pay — at least in year-to-year variations.
Although property taxes are assessed by a rate per $1,000 of a home’s or business’ value, that’s where the connection ends.
County assessors and treasurers collect taxes according to how much money all governments — the state, the county, the hospital, the library, etc. — will spend in the coming year.
After they total all those budgets — which cannot grow by more than 1 percent each year — they divide the amount by the total property value of the county and determine the levy rate.
In other words, the more property is worth, the less the rate will be. The total tax — unless people raised levy lids or approved new taxes — won’t grow very much.
Clallam County Auditor Pam Rushton said other states tax by rates, not by budgets.
Like salary, wage earners
She compared the difference to that between a salaried worker and a wage earner.
A salaried worker earns a set amount no matter how many hours he or she works — like Washington’s system — and working more hours translates to less money per hour.
A wage earner, however, is paid by an hourly rate. The longer the person works, the more money he or she earns.
“Your actual taxes are the amount of money that each of those taxing districts have to run that district,” Rushton said last week.
Confusion comes when property re-evaluations arrive in people’s mail months before their tax bills do and property owners imagine that a rising evaluation will mean proportionately higher taxes.
“They’re going to see some changes in values,” Rushton said.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean they will see a difference in taxes.”
Value climbs, rate drops
To illustrate the phenomenon further, Rushton compared the total property valuation in Clallam County in 2000 with its value in 2007.
In 2000, real property was worth just less than $4 billion, and owners paid an average $11.32 per $1,000.
Seven years later, the total value of property had doubled, but the rate dropped to $8.29 per $1,000.
“Our levy rates are some of the lowest around,” Rushton said.
Big tax hikes come because voters approve them.
“People do need to know when they vote stuff in” — such as Olympic Medical Center’s levy lid lift that will take effect in 2009 — “they’re going to be paying more,” Rushton said.
It’s too late to appeal an evaluation this year because it must be done within 30 days after receiving a re-evaluation notice.
How to appeal, get relief
Taxpayers still can appeal their next year’s evaluation, however, before July 1, 2009.
They should call Susie Breitbach, clerk of the Board of Equalization, at 360-417-2330.
Elders and disabled people also can get tax relief — either by shifting the burden to other taxpayers or by deferring their payments — and should call Rushton’s office at 360-417-2202 to learn more.
Most people who received re-evaluations this year live in the county’s West End.
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Reporter Jim Casey can be reached at 360-417-3538 or at jim.casey@ peninsuladailynews.com.
