School levies would replace those expiring

Three school district levies are expiring at the end of 2022, and two proposed levies totaling the same tax rate are on the ballot for the February 8 election to replace them. 

The levies have collected up to $4.20 per $1,000 of assessed value from property taxes.

Two educational “enrichment” levies expiring at the end of 2022 are being combined into one proposed levy, the Educational Programs and Operations Levy, which would collect an estimated $2.50 per thousand dollars of assessed property value.

The capital levy would remain at the same $1.70 per thousand rate. 

Combined, the two levies would bring in between $1.4 and $1.7 million each year between 2023 and 2026.

A misconception among some is that the new levies are in addition to the current levies, but that is not the case. The levies on the ballot, if passed, would replace the current levies, which are expiring at the end of 2022.

At the current rate of $4.20 per thousand dollars of assessed property value, the owners of a $100,000 house would currently be paying $420 a year on the current school levies. They would continue to pay $420 a year on the replacement levies. 

As property values tend to go up, the school anticipates collecting more money, with the $4.20 rate anticipated to bring in about $1.3 million to the district in 2022, about $1.4 million in 2023, and an increasing amount each year up to $1.7 million in 2026 when the new levies, if passed, would expire.

So the hypothetical $100,000 house may in a coming year be valued at $110,000. Instead of paying $420 towards the levies for the year, would then be paying $462, an additional $42 reflecting the $10,000 increase in valuation.

Making understanding the levies a bit more complicated, school districts must seek to collect a certain amount of money. They estimate the rate per $1,000 needed to collect that amount, but the actual collection rate can vary.

In the case of the Grand Coulee Dam School District, the district is seeking roughly $1.4 million in 2023, and anticipates, based on the valuation of properties in the district, that a rate of $4.20 per thousand will bring that in.

However, if property values go up significantly, new houses are built, and other factors come into play, it may take a lesser rate per thousand to collect that $1.4 million.

How levies work

For example, a hypothetical district has 10 houses, each valued at $1,000. The district is seeking $10 and runs a levy at $1 per thousand. Each house pays $1 towards the levy, reaching the district’s $10 goal. 

Then, 10 more houses are built in the district, all valued at $1,000. The district still has a goal of collecting $10. But now with 20 houses, each house only has to pay 50 cents to meet the $10 goal.

Grant County Assessor Melissa McKnight went into further detail with The Star in an email. 

“The Grand Coulee Dam School District is what we call a joint district as it involves properties from Grant, Lincoln, Okanogan and Douglas Counties,” she said.

“The total valuation of the school district, including all counties for levy purposes (this is excluding senior exempt properties), is $335,543,725,” she said. That is an increase of $27,740,468 from 2021.

Doing the math, at the $4.20 rate, that value would bring in the district’s target of $1.4 million for 2023 collection.

“Property valuations have gone up due to [the real estate] market and new construction,” McKnight said. “Typically, as the valuation of a district increases, the levy rate decreases, so some people might not notice a difference, while some pay more because the value went up more than the rate decreased.”

In 2022, the capital levy, which was anticipated to take $1.70 per thousand to collect its target goal, actually took only $1.54 to collect about $518,000. The educational enrichment levies were right on target at $2.50 per thousand to collect about $839,000.

To explain this, McKnight reiterated that “districts cannot certify a rate, only an amount.”

McKnight also elaborated on how properties are revalued.

“All properties by law have to be revalued annually, she said. 

A sixth of the county is actually physically inspected each year, with the other five-sixths of the county revalued statistically, based on sales of comparable properties in those areas, McKnight said.

“When they physically inspect, we make sure the information we have is correct,” she said, “such as how many bedrooms, bathrooms, has there been any remodeling or building permits, do we have the correct size of the building, is there a fireplace, a deck or patio, etc. Are there any problems with the property, such as foundation issues, roof issues, etc. We do knock on the doors prior to inspection to talk to the property owner to introduce ourselves and see if there are any changes.” She said that assessors are currently in the Coulee area for this revaluation cycle.

Grant County as a whole has a total valuation of over $15.6 billion, up by nearly $2.2 billion since 2021, including $276.8 million of new construction value, McKnight said.