Mount Vernon finance director explains levy-based property tax system
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Summary
Doug Voleski, Mount Vernon's director of finance, outlined how Washington's levy-based property tax system works: taxing districts set a dollar levy and the county assessor divides that levy by total assessed value to produce the tax rate, so rising property values lower the rate per $1,000 while raising total assessed base.
Doug Voleski, director of finance for the City of Mount Vernon, offered a brief explanation of Washington's levy-based property tax system in a 60-second budget overview. "Washington is 1 of 2 states with a levy based property tax system," Voleski said.
Under the levy approach, Voleski said, taxing districts such as Mount Vernon set a fixed dollar amount'the levy'they want to collect each year regardless of changes in property values. "The county assessor calculates the property tax rate by dividing the levy by the total assessed value within the district, and each owner pays their share of the levy based on how much assessed value they have," he said.
Voleski used a simple analogy to describe the effect of shifting property values: when the total value of property within the city rises, "the rate per 1,000 of assessed value decreases to collect the same amount of money, like splitting a pie into more pieces." The director's remarks were informational and did not include any proposed ordinance, levy increase, or vote by the city council.
The explanation clarifies how a levy-based system keeps the total dollars collected by a taxing district constant from year to year unless the levy itself is changed through the district's decision-making processes or other legal adjustments. No formal action or decision was recorded in this briefing.
