Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
DAVENPORT—The Lincoln County Assessor’s Office has completed property revaluations for the Davenport area, and some locals are concerned that the skyrocketing value of their home will lead to a large impact on their taxes.
But whether that statement is true or false is rather complicated, assessor J Scott Liebing contended.
Taxing districts, which could include fire, hospital, school, county roads, cemetery, city, county, and parks and recreation districts, are only legally allowed to increase taxes by 1% in a calendar year per state RCW.
However, those districts can pass levies or bonds that would effectively raise those taxes if the voters approve those levies.
“A common misconception is that it’s illegal for us to raise your property value more than 1% every year,” Liebing said. “Actually, we’re required to value properties as close to market value as possible. But the taxing districts can’t raise your taxes by more than 1% every year.”
It is therefore true that one’s taxes will increase as property values increase, but the quantity is based on what levies each taxpayer is funding. This could include a school capital levy, replacement levy, cemetery district levy or anything else passed by the voters in each election.
“A lot of times people vote on these levies and don’t consider that when their property values are reassessed,” Liebing said.
While property values going up means one will pay more for an approved levy, the mill rate will decrease, which further complicates calculation of taxes, he added.
The issue is further complicated by the fact that Lincoln County is divided into 70 taxing code areas. Those living in Davenport city limits are in a different tax code area (No. 3) than those just north or south on the farms, most of which are in tax code area No. 54.
Each tax code area is defined by which taxes residents in that area pay. Those in city limits pay city taxes, but those outside city limits don’t. Those outside city limits pay county road taxes, but those inside city limits don’t.
70 different possible taxing combinations between districts such as school, fire and the like in Lincoln County create the 70 tax code areas.
The area outside Davenport, tax code area No. 54, is rather large because of common school, fire, cemetery and parks and recreation districts.
Property values were reassessed for 2023 in the Davenport revaluation zone, of which there are six in Lincoln County. This process occurred in the Reardan zone last year, where residents there, Edwall, Long Lake and the surrounding areas faced similar concerns about rising tax levels.
Next year’s revaluation process will occur in the Sprague and Harrington areas.
The Assessor’s Office revaluates properties once every six years, rotating through the six revaluation zones, Liebing said. Some individual properties can be revaluated depending on factors such as new houses being built, ownership transferring or quality of the home increasing or decreasing.
Those revaluations usually end up valuing properties slightly below what they would sell for, not above, though the Assessor’s Office tries to hit as close to 100% of market value as possible, Liebing said.
“We always ask the question when someone complains about our valuation, ‘would you sell your house for less than that price?’” he said. “99 times out of 100, that answer is no.”
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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