Revenue Goof Zeroes In On Kitsap County

A $55 million mistake by the state Department of Revenue has clobbered the budgets of central Kitsap County fire and port districts and the library system.

Mike Gowrylow, communications manager for the department, said an employee typed in $55,000,000 instead of $55,000 when entering the assessed value of AT&T and Puget Sound Energy property in Kitsap County, most of it in the central part of the county.

The error was discovered last week after the agency switched to a new computer program. Now the state must take the extra $54.9 million off of Kitsap County’s assessed value. The error represents four-tenths of 1 percent of the county’s total assessed value of $12.25 billion.

The mistake means taxing districts in central Kitsap will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in expected tax revenues, many property owners will receive tax charges higher than originally estimated, and property tax notices will be delayed by two weeks.

Hit hardest will be taxing districts - fire districts, the library system and port districts - which set budgets on tax revenue forecasts, which are based on the assessed value of the property that falls within the district.

“This is a change for them,” Kitsap County Assessor Carol Belas said. “They follow these things closely. They follow it to the penny. Hopefully they haven’t already spent it.”

Fire Chief Dick West said he was told his District 1 would lose about $125,000 out of its 1998 budget of $3.3million. The district serves 85 square miles.

The district could have passed on the loss of money to property owners, but opted to stick with a current levy assessment of $1.41 out of every $1,000 of assessed value.

“It will have a significant impact,” West said. “The county offered to resolve the issue by increasing our levy rate (to $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed value). I told them that was unacceptable. We’re not going to do that to the public.”

Other taxing districts losing money out of their 1998 budget, according to Belas, are the regional library system, $27,000; county juvenile facility, $19,000; Port of Silverdale, $15,000; PUD No. 1, $5,000; and the county Conservation Futures, $3,000. Belas said the county also will see a drop in tax revenues that could approach $100,000. She said all the numbers are early estimates.

Property owners in central Kitsap County could also see higher property taxes than originally forecast. Belas said it is too early to determine the extent of the higher taxes.

“It probably is not a significant amount. Most taxpayers, they won’t know the difference except they’ll get their tax statements late,” Belas said.