Asotin County housing values are complicating the Clarkston High School bond issue

Many Asotin County residents considering whether or not to vote for the Clarkston High School bond are taking a hard look at their property taxes.

Those taxes for residents in the Clarkston School District will increase if the $79 million bond to rebuild the high school passes. Some properties in Asotin County have already seen property taxes double, which can be linked to the increase in housing values.

Asotin County Assessor Jenny Rynearson said that some property taxes in Asotin County are seeing up to a 100% increase. She used the example of a home that four years ago would have been priced at $264,000. Today that home could be worth upward of $450,000.

“Look at what the market’s done in the last six years — crazy,” Rynearson said.

In Washington, property tax rates are based on the market value of the home, which is how the assessor’s office gets the assessed value. Rynearson said there’s a misconception that the market value and assessed value are different.

“Assessed value and market value should be the same,” she said. “It’s supposed to be what it would be sold for today.”

However, the assessor’s office tends to be conservative in its valuations.

“It’s really hard to be at 100% of market value, but that’s what we’re charged with doing by state law,” Rynearson said.

Washington is a disclosure state, which means the sales price of every property is available to the public. Rynearson looks at the monthly sales from properties in Asotin County to assist in determining the value of the county.

Because the assessed values are determined by analyzing the market value, the types of homes being sold in the county can also affect the county’s total assessed value. For example, if a brand new subdivision in the Clarkston Heights is being developed and sold at a high price, that would increase the value for the county. The property values are also affected by the high cost of supplies that are driving up home prices.

During the year the assessor’s office inspects properties, new construction and new businesses to determine the taxing district’s total taxable assessed value. The assessor’s officer only inspects one sixth of the county every year.

Asotin County determines its property taxes in November when each taxing district, such as county commissioners, fire/EMS, library, roads, court and the school district, sends their budgets to the county. Each district has its own levy rate.

State law prohibits taxing districts from increasing their total budget more than 1% from the previous year. Rynearson said people confuse this law as prohibiting property taxes from increasing, but it only affects the budgets that taxing districts create.

Once the property’s value is determined, it’s divided by 1,000, then multiplied by the tax rate to get the property tax bill. For example, if a house was valued at $200,000, the number would be divided by 1,000, then the tax rate of $2.62 would be applied to get the property tax bill of $524, Rynearson said. That example uses the $2.62 rate for Clarkston School District’s regular operations levy rate.

If the $79 million CHS bond passes at the rate of $2.84, that $200,000 home would pay $568 for the 25-year bond, in addition to the district’s current levy rate and other property taxes.

However, there are income-based exemptions for seniors and the disabled, but those are the only exemptions offered to residents in the state of Washington.

Residents in the Clarkston School District also pay two state taxes on schools.

The average total levy rate Asotin County taxpayers in the Clarkston School District was $11.03 in 2023, which included all the taxing districts like port, county, cemetery and schools. Of that $11.03 more than half, $5.62, goes to the local school district and the two state school levies.

Asotin County also has the same tax rate for residential and commercial businesses. Therefore multimillion-dollar value properties, like Walmart, are using the same formula (the value of property, divided by 1,000, multiplied by the tax rate) to pay their property taxes to the county.

“For everyone in the same district, they pay the same tax rate,” Rynearson said.

Commercial properties values are also increasing, depending on the business, but not at the same rate as residential properties. However, Asotin County doesn’t have the same kind of big businesses, like Clearwater Paper, Vista Outdoors or Schweitzer Engineering Labs, that Nez Perce County does across the river.

Some of the properties in Asotin County are exempt from the tax rolls such as tribal land, fish and wildlife areas, Bureau of Land Management and the Army Corps of Engineers. Tri-State Memorial Hospital is a non-profit medical facility that is also partially exempt from paying property taxes, and its rate of exemption status is determined by the Washington Department of Revenue.

Brewster may be contacted at kbrewster@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2297.