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March 2004 Property Tax ReviewPeriodically WCRER summarizes statistics prepared by the Washington State Department of Revenue on property taxes. Statistics for the 2003 tax year were recently released. Usually this review focuses on assessment ratios, and while these statistics remain of interest, and are the primary ones which deal separately with real and personal property, a slightly different focus is being applied this time. However, it is still important to point out that the most recent statistics indicate a statewide assessed value of real estate of $474.5 billion and an assessed value of personal property of $33.7 billion. Real property represents about 93.3 percent of total assessed value underlying property tax collections. Property tax levies in Washington totaled $6.254 billion for calendar year 2003. Of that amount, $1.485 billion represents the state regular levy for schools. That represents 12.3 percent of total state tax revenues coming from less than a quarter of property tax collections. Where does the $6.25 billion go? Over half (55.8 percent) goes to schools. The largest chunk is the state levy (23.7 percent). Maintenance and operations levies are next (18.7 percent), then bonds (10.7 percent). Capital/transportation school levies are the final education piece (2.7 percent). Counties also receive property tax revenues (about 17.5 percent of the total), with the largest portion going to current expense (regular), more commonly known as the general fund. The second largest county component is 5.3 percent of total collections going to the county road district. Other county recipients of property tax revenues are few in number and small in impact. Cities and towns also have a stake in property revenues, with 12.6 percent of total collections allocated to municipal regular levies and 1.2 percent to the special levies. Finally, 13.0 percent of property tax revenues go to “districts.” The primary types of districts are ports, fire protection, libraries, hospitals, emergency medical, parks, etc. While these separate districts receive both regular and special assessments, most are regular. In terms of dollar impacts, the largest financial impacts come from fire protection (4.6 percent), libraries (2.7 percent), emergency medical (2.1 percent), and ports (1.9 percent). These allocations are all expressed as proportions of total property tax collections. Statewide property tax levies in 2003 were 4.6 percent above 2002 (although rates declined for the fourth consecutive year and are now 9.1 percent below 1999 rates). Levy dollars declined in four small counties, all in Eastern Washington. Total levies increased more than 6.0 percent in eight counties, led by a 9.6 percent jump in Klickitat County. Noteworthy was the inclusion of Snohomish County, with the third highest total levy in the state among the significantly increased total levy group. |
Media ReleaseGlenn
E. Crellin, Director PO Box 644861 Statistics on Washington’s housing market and other useful information are available on WCRER’s Web site: www.cbe.wsu.edu/~wcrer. For other information on real estate markets around the State of Washington, or general information about the real estate industry in the state (excluding legal questions), readers can reach the WCRER at 1-800-835-9683. |