ANACORTES — Taxpayers and residents can weigh in at tonight’s City Council meeting on the proposed 2009 $45.3 million budget and proposal to raise the property tax rate by 1 percent.

Mayor Dean Maxwell has proposed that the bump in taxes will help fund a 4.4 percent or $1.9 million increase to the city’s 2008 budget of $43.4 million.
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The story is incorrect.  If the reporter is referring to the “levy rate” when she says “tax rate”, she’s still wrong.  What taxing districts are allowed to do is to increase the “levy” by up to one percent each year.  The levy is the total pot of tax money they intend to collect.  So, if last year’s levy was a million dollars, they can increase that amount by one percent which is ten thousand dollars.  That ten thousand is then apportioned amongst all taxed property based on assessed value (in thousands) of each piece of property.

Almost no one understands this system....not even most elected officials who vote on these things.