Pend Oreille County Wins Tax Dispute

Pend Oreille, the county, won a big victory Thursday in its multimillion-dollar tax assessment dispute with Ponderay, the newsprint plant.

If upheld on appeal, the ruling wipes out an effort to cut in half the Usk, Wash., newsprint plant’s property tax bill.

Ponderay Newsprint pays more than half of all countywide property taxes and even more in some junior taxing districts.

Although newsprint is selling at record prices, Ponderay Newsprint contends its plant is worth only about half its assessed value of $325 million. The industry was in decline when the company filed its appeal in 1993.

Judge Larry Kristianson’s ruling was based on his interpretation of complicated state property tax laws.

Seattle attorney Bill Severson said the company will appeal the decision.

“I’m just real pleased it went the way God intended it to go,” Assessor Steve Thompson said of Kristianson’s ruling.

However, the ruling provides no immediate relief for the county government or several taxing districts that haven’t been able to collect the disputed tax for almost two years.

The appeal already has taken longer than expected, and county officials are starting to consider emergency measures to keep their budgets out of the red.

, DataTimes