County residents appeal taxesat a record setting pace

Wahkiakum County taxpayers last year flooded the county Board of Equalization with a record number of appeals of their property tax assessments in 2008.

In the 2008, there were around 70 appeals, according to board Clerk Muriel Prestegard.

The amount of appeals has risen dramatically over the past several years, she said. When Prestegard first became clerk four years ago, there were only 10-15 a year. That jumped to 50-60 appeals in 2007.

After having their appeals heard, some people did withdraw their appeals, but many took them to the Washington State Board of Tax Appeals. There, despite the county's low population, the number of appeals approaches that of a much larger county such as Whatcom.

The number of appeals in other counties is rising as well.

Stephen Saynisch, executive director of the BOTA, wouldn’t speculate the reason for high appeal numbers; however, he said he believed the reason the number of Wahkiakum County appeals is so high is because of the four year revalue cycle.

“Generally, it is the climate of the times,” he said. “When people see the assessment, and it’s going up, then they read in the newspaper that real estate is tanking, it doesn’t compute.

"The problem I see is that people, taxpayers, don’t understand the system.”

While he couldn’t speak specifically, Saynisch said he believes Wahkiakum County’s numbers were high for what the BOTA has experienced in the past.

The assessment valuation begins on January 1 of the assessment year. What that means is whatever the true and fair market value of the property was on January 1, 2008 the tax gets assessed on that date.

“Not today or late 2008, but January 1, 2008,” he said.

He added that it is a common misconception that people will expect the assessment to be of the current market status.

“It causes consternation and confusion and raises the amount of appeals across the state,” Saynisch said.

Under the four-year assessment cycle, the county is split into four sections and reassessed and physically inspected every four years. The assessed value remains the same for those four years.

As time passes in an active market with rising prices for property, values will lag far below the current market, said Mike Funderburg, Wahkiakum County chief deputy appraiser.

People won’t be paying a tax based on what the market value of their property is; they will be paying less, he said, and there is often a big hike as assessment catches up with current market value.

“That is what they (the tax payers) don’t like, and rightfully so, because it is all at once," Funderburg said. "There is no natural progression or anything.”

The Department of Revenue is working to get all counties on an annual update schedule, he said. This would show the steady rise in tax values instead of all at once.

It would take more staff for the assessor's department to update appraisals annually, Funderburg said. Currently, all departments are being forced to cut staff in the wake of county budget cuts.

Property is inspected annually. New construction is automatically inspected annually.

Theoretically, this should lower taxes, for as the value of the new property increases the valuation of the district, the levy remains the same and is spread over a larger tax base.

While Wahkiakum County is revalued every four years, some of the larger counties, like King County, are revalued and inspected every six.

“Every six years, you have to go out and inspect, physically,” Assessor Sulema Zerr said.

“What happens is, you do a mass appraisal every year,” even if properties are revalued only every fouryears," she said.