In Our View: Have You Paid Your Taxes?

If you thought Halloween was scary, Monday is also the day property taxes are due for the second half of 2016.

According to County Assessor Peter Van Nortwick’s website, the county has 169,505 individual parcels of land, of which 163,807 are taxable at regular rates (there are exceptions for land owned by government and utilities, for example). The total taxable assessed value of Clark County this year is more than $46.6 billion, nearly $3.4 billion more than a year ago due to increased values and some $721.8 million in new construction.

Property taxes are calculated based on the value of real estate property. It’s Van Nortwick’s job to keep track of all of those 169,505 parcels and affix a value on each. The property owners are then taxed at a rate per $1,000 of assessed property value.

Your job as a homeowner is to send money to county Treasurer Doug Lasher in April and October. He will split the money among many different jurisdictions. Fantasize for a minute that your home is worth $1 million (still a pretty rare home in Clark County, but it makes the math easier). Lasher will send the first $2,078 of your check to the state government, and deposit $1,239.10 into the county general fund. (The majority is actually going to be spent on law enforcement and criminal justice.)

After that, depending on where you live, there will be payouts to your local school district, city government, rural fire district, the Fort Vancouver Regional Library, a port district, and maybe even a cemetery district. Let’s use the county councilors as an example, in order of property tax rate:

Chair Marc Boldt (total assessed home value $339,996) pays the greatest tax rate, even though he lives out in Brush Prairie, far away from any city taxes. But he does pay almost $6.13 per $1,000 of assessed value to Hockinson schools, which is the most in Clark County. County roads cost Boldt another $504. His total tax bill this year is $13.31 per $1,000 of assessed property value.

David Madore (assessed home value $682,160) lives on the east side of Vancouver, outside the city limits and in the Evergreen school district. He and his wife, Donna, have already paid their full year of property taxes, which amounted to $13.05 per $1,000 of assessed property value.

Councilor Jeanne Stewart ($394,342) lives in one of Vancouver’s older, established westside neighborhoods. She pays for Vancouver schools, C-Tran, the Port of Vancouver, and other urban services. But as a city resident she doesn’t pay extra for roads, fire services or street lighting. Her total tax bill this year is $11.93 per $1,000 of assessed property value.

District 4 Councilor Tom Mielke ($357,719) lives outside the city limits of Battle Ground. He benefits from Battle Ground Public Schools’ relatively low tax rate of $4.4818 per $1,000 of assessed property value, which is lower than Hockinson, Evergreen, Camas, Washougal, Vancouver and Woodland. (La Center costs 10 cents less.) Like Madore, Mielke has already paid his 2016 taxes in full, which cost him $11.78 per $1,000 of assessed value.

Paying the lowest tax rate is Councilor Julie Olson ($421,521). She is one of thousands who write their address as Ridgefield but live outside the city limits. Like Stewart, she pays for some urban services including C-Tran, rural services like county roads, and even has a special street lighting assessment. Her total rate is $11.47 per $1,000.

Unless you rent or use your mortgage lender’s escrow service, now it’s time to find your tax statement, your checkbook, a pen and a stamp.