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March 29, 2024

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Clark County Assessor’s Office ready for property tax inquiries

Many homeowners to see rise in value as assessments go out

By Shari Phiel, Columbian staff writer
Published: June 15, 2022, 6:25pm

With property assessment notices going out in the mail this week, staff at the Clark County Assessor’s Office are readying for a surge in calls, especially as assessed values and property taxes have increased for many homeowners.

The No. 1 question for staff is: “How are my property taxes calculated?”

“In the state of Washington, we are required to assess properties at 100 percent of market value,” Assessor Peter Van Nortwick said. “We do … mass appraisals, which is different than one-off, fee appraisals.”

Unlike an individual appraisal, the kind done when purchasing or selling a home, Van Nortwick said mass appraisals use data from all sales to set values for certain characteristics. Those characteristics can include whether the building is a residence or a commercial structure, if the building is a single story, two story or more, the type of residence (apartment, condo, manufactured home, etc.), structural quality, age of the property, date of last update, etc. Those values are then applied to all properties across the tax base to determine the assessed value.

Property assessments don’t always reflect what’s happening in the market, Van Nortwick said.

“The 2022 taxes are based on the 2021 assessments. And the 2021 assessments are based on the 2020 sales. And the assessments that go out this year are for the payment of taxes in 2023,” he said.

This means the upsurge in housing prices in Clark County since January will be reflected in the sales data used for next year’s assessments. In turn, those 2023 assessments will be used to calculate tax statements for 2024.

Not surprisingly, appraisals are often challenged by property owners. While property owners cannot appeal an increase in property taxes, they can appeal the assessed value. Appeals must be submitted to the Board of Equalization within 60 days of the date on the Notice of Value.

Once the appraisals are complete, Van Nortwick said, “The next step is we take all those assessed values and add them up to come up with the total assessed value. Once the total assessed value is done, then we’re waiting for the tax districts to tell us how much we are to collect in property taxes.”

Each tax district, as well as the Clark County Council, certifies the total amount to be collected for their district. For example, in 2022 the city of Ridgefield had a general levy for $1.9 million and an administrative refund levy of $1,142, while the city of Vancouver had a general levy of $54.7 million, and an affordable housing levy of $6 million.

Those are only a few of the levies for the dozens of school, fire, cemetery, library, city and fire tax districts in the county.

“The levy amount is the only thing that matters,” Van Nortwick said, adding that while tax districts will estimate the levy rate, that rate will change depending on property values and the number of properties taxed.

“It doesn’t matter if assessed values double or assessed values go down, they can only collect the levy amount,” he said.

The total amount to be collected by district is then apportioned across the properties in that district.

There is another subject the assessor’s office is frequently asked about: the state’s 1 percent annual cap on property tax increases. The 1 percent limit applies to the maximum increase a single tax district can take, plus tax revenues generated by new construction; it does not apply to the assessed value of an individual home or taxes paid by a property owner.

Homeowner Marvin Diebert, who lives southwest of the Clark County Fairgrounds, said both his home’s value and taxes went up 20 percent this year. Although not unexpected, it’s still a hard pill to swallow, he said.

“Back in March, the sheriff cut back in services. I was a little irritated because my property taxes went up 10 percent last year. Why aren’t they cutting my property taxes?” Diebert said.

Diebert said he noticed the taxes paid to his fire district also increased significantly and were twice what gets allocated to public safety.

“When I look at what I’m paying in taxes, would you really pay double over what goes to the sheriff?” he said.

For anyone who cannot pay their property taxes, assistance may be available. The county has a tax exemption program available for seniors and disabled individuals. The state Department of Revenue has a property tax deferral program available to low-income households that allows half of the annual taxes to be deferred. The deferred amount, plus interest, is added as lien until repaid.

For more information on these and other programs, go to https://clark.wa.gov/assessor/property-tax-relief-programs.

Property owners have an excellent resource in the county’s Property Information Center online tool. Along with the account information such as owner and building information and sale history, homeowners can compare this year’s taxes by tax district to the prior year. Detailed property information can be found at https://gis.clark.wa.gov/gishome/Property.

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