Seniors Begin Drive To Curb Property Taxes

Over the past few years, Washington lawmakers have introduced scores of different proposals to ease the pain of ever-mounting property taxes on homeowners.

All to no avail.

Legislators enacted a mix of tax breaks for business last session. Homeowners got nothing.

So this year, the Senior Legislative Coalition of Eastern Washington is taking the lead early in efforts to roll back and/or clamp a lid on property tax growth.

A letter to State Sen. John Moyer and State Rep. Lisa Brown, both of Spokane, says Spokane homeowners have been hit in recent years by cumulative “increases of 50 to 60 percent in the property tax on individual real estate.

“These … tax increases have been far in excess of increases in any consumer price index, far in excess of any salary increases, and far in excess of many families’ ability to pay.

“The increased tax burden has been especially devastating for lower-income workers and for retired senior citizens, most of whom rely on a fixed income,” said the letter, signed by coalition co-president Ross M. Boreson, retired industrial economist.

“The only alternatives available to low-income workers and to retired seniors,” the letter goes on, “are to reduce expenditures for other necessities such as food or medical care, or to lose their residence and become a part of the ‘homeless families’ problem.

“Falling back upon one or more of these alternatives is already evident,” the coalition reports.

Others who work with low-income homeowners and the elderly agree the problem is acute. “It’s a real dilemma,” says Judith Ross, community education coordinator for Aging and Long Term Care of Eastern Washington. “Although we have, I think, some fairly good property tax exemptions for seniors on the books at present,” says Ross, “I question whether they meet the needs of middle-income homeowners.”

Ross says low-income seniors can secure property tax exemptions from special levies like those approved for schools and fire districts. Higher-income seniors who don’t qualify for exemptions can defer paying taxes until they sell their home.

But everyone with whom I talked says that escalating property taxes are a curse on the aged. Sen. Moyer, himself a senior, spoke of an elderly constituent whose property tax tripled in just the past year - from $174.64 to $507.30.

The Senior Legislative Coalition asked Moyer to consider a four-part proposal which would:

Eliminate the state school tax on homes.

Lower residential property taxes.

Correlate future increases with the Consumer Price Index, but not exceeding 6 percent.

Make up the difference with a state income tax for educational purposes only - not to exceed 1 percent of individual and business taxable income as reported on federal tax returns.

Moyer said he ran the proposal past the State Revenue Department’s numbers-crunchers and, “There are problems.”

A 1 percent income tax wouldn’t come close to offsetting state school tax revenues derived from property taxes on homes. That would require a 3 percent income tax. And the Legislature can’t enact an income tax exceeding 1 percent without a vote of the people.

A better solution, Moyer suggests, might be the approach being taken by State Sen. Dan Swecker of Rochester.

He wants to phase out over a 10-year period the state’s take on property taxes, which is one-fourth of the total tax bill. “This would still allow the state budget to grow over $1 billion per biennium,” he told me, “and homeowners would enjoy a tax reduction of $340 a year on a $100,000 home.”

Swecker also is working an initiative to the Legislature to roll property taxes back to 1995 levels, and cap annual increases at 2 percent. Initiative 108 also would restrict growth of local budgets.

, DataTimes MEMO: Associate Editor Frank Bartel writes on retirement issues each Sunday. He can be reached with ideas for future columns at 459-5467 or fax 459-5482.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Frank Bartel The Spokesman-Review