SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. – In 2017, Spokane County residents paid $562,961,631 in total property taxes. In 2024, that number jumped 52.8% to $860,250,730, leaving property owners confused about how their taxes could rise so much in such a short amount of time. According to Spokane County Deputy Assessor Joe Hollenback, the courts have a role to play.
“They were saying the legislature is not funding schools the way they’re supposed to, so the McCleary’s sued the State of Washington,” Hollenback told a crowded hotel lobby side room. “That started groundswell support for two things: one was teacher pay and the other one was classroom sizes. So the legislature came in 2017 – after they were going to get sued, there was a $100,000 a day fine.”
The court decision prompted emergency action to pour funds into schools. According to Hollenbeck, levies are usually capped, meaning the agency benefitting from the levy has a budgetary goal and they don’t collect more money than their goal, even if property values would allow them to do so.
“The problem that I see in this – I said earlier we’re a budget-driven environment and levy rates go down as the values go up – but to fix this the first time through the legislature created a flat levy rate,” Hollenback explained. “Well what happened in 2017 or 2018 on a statewide basis? Values went up – they created $2.70 per assessed value while values were going up.”
The McCleary explanation was the key point of an hour-long presentation to the Republicans of Spokane County, separate from the official Spokane County GOP, to explain the ins and outs of property taxes.
“People are just feeling the pinch in general,” newly-elected Chairman Shelly Clark said. “Their groceries are going up, their gas bills are going up, they’re feeling the pinch economically all around and so having property taxes increase – they just want to know why (and) what they can expect for the future.”
In attendance were several elected officials, including Spokane Valley Fire Commissioner Patrick Burch, who’s department relies on voters approving levy funds.
“The transparency is what’s key,” he said. “I think voters and the citizens hopefully have a better understand about ‘hey, maybe this isn’t as bad as I think it is.’”
To help explain it better, Spokane County has a section on their website where you can figure out exactly where your property taxes go, down to the parcel of land.
