Well, it is up to you to support property tax relief. But only the Washington State Legislature can make it a reality. King County Assessor John Wilson has a proposal that would allow easier and fair reductions in property value to reflect the impact of COVID-19 response. You can read the whole explanation right here, below.

Lowered property values and the resulting benefits of lower taxes might eventually make their way to hard hit housing providers. But here’s the key part of Wilson’s proposal,

State law allows assessors to adjust taxable values if the property is damaged by a natural disaster, but not because of a pandemic. Wilson wants to expand the law to cover impacts as a result of governmental restrictions enacted during a public health pandemic.

From the press release, emphasis mine

Wilson’s proposal would allow more relief and sooner to take account of the impacts of COVID-19. But legislative leaders need to hear from you now. Please send them a message using the form below.

Support Assessor Wilson's Property Tax Relief Proposal

Read the petition

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Dear Legislative Leadership

I am writing to you as a housing provider concerned about the long lasting impacts of COVID-19 response to my efforts to continue providing housing for people in Washington state. Hard hit families and individuals have experienced lags in unemployment and other benefits. Along with this, eviction bans imposed by the state and local government have resulted in increases in delinquent rent. Rent is how I pay for maintenance and operations, amenities, health and safety measures, and, ultimately, property taxes. Please support efforts by King County Assessor John Wilson to offer property tax relief for housing providers like me and my residents. We have come together in this difficult time to work with residents as some of them have struggled with lost income and uncertainty. This has come at a real cost and Assessor Wilson's proposal to allow revaluation of property and reduction in tax obligations to reflect the gravity of the impacts on the housing economy. As the Assessor said in his announcement, “If we’d been hit by a massive earthquake, flood or tsunami, state law would give us tools to reset fair values, but the law doesn’t cover a pandemic like COVID-19,” said Wilson. “It’s just not fair to smack some of these hard-hit businesses and [housing providers] with values set well before COVID-19 raced through the community." Some of us spend as much as 25 percent of our operating budget on taxes including property taxes. To keep paying this share along with facing difficulty and state and local mandates for payment plans on delinquent rents isn't realistic, especially if there is a future outbreak that causes more impacts. During any special session we'd ask that the Assessor's proposal be passed quickly and without any amendment or ornamentation that would slow or condition the tax relief to our hard hit communities. Thank you for listening,

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