The April 29 “All politics is local” blog post in the Columbian — “Property tax rates high, but taxes? No,” about Commissioner Steve Stuart correcting Tom Mielke on property taxes — seems a little odd. Both Stuart and the overall tone of the blog post seemed to have a “gotcha” attitude toward Mielke’s comment. The reporting seems to suggest that we should be comforted that even though we have the highest tax rates in the state we are only paying about the same as everyone else in the state whose property is probably worth more. Not only is Stuart reinforcing we pay more by percentage, he’s pointing out that what we have in Clark County is worth less than the rest of the state. Now is that supposed to be better than paying more because our net worth is higher? I’m confused.
Robert Darrow
Vancouver
