King County Assessor John Wilson on Wednesday released his February 2020 Taxpayer Transparency Tool, a website which provides each taxpayer an individualized accounting of where their property tax dollars go, and the estimated cost of any proposed property tax measure to be voted on.
“Taxpayers have a right to know where their money is going, and what each proposed property tax levy will cost them,” Wilson said in a King County Assessor news release. “Property taxes keep going up. We need to make sure the public understands why.”
Residents in areas with property tax measures on the Feb. 11 ballot will be able to see how those measures will affect them, including the Kent School District’s Proposition No. 1, which is a Replacement of Expiring Educational Programs and Operations Levy.
Other school districts with measures on the ballot include Auburn, Bellevue, Enumclaw, Issaquah, Riverview, Tahoma and Tukwila. The Auburn-based Valley Regional Fire Authority has a levy lid lift measure.
The tool can be found at http://localscape.spatialest.com/#kingcountyassessor/Tax.
The Transparency Tool only shows the impact of property tax measures. Other ballot measures, including sales tax measures or benefit charges, are not included. The Tax Transparency Tool was introduced by Wilson and first used during the April 2018 special election.
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