Stop the madness!

["JS M" <jbiggs50@hotmail.com>]

Re:  Washington State Initiative 695, on the ballot tomorrow.  Have friends 
in Pullman?  Forward this on.

>From The Courthouse Journal, October 29:

POTENTIAL INCREASE IN PERSONAL PROPERTY ACCOUNTS
If I-695 passes next week, county assessors will be faced with a real 
dilemma on how they will place motor vehicles, campers, and travel trailers 
back on the personal property tax rolls. I-695 repeals the two exemptions 
that exist in law making such property exempt from property taxes. The 
exemption for motor vehicles was placed into law in 1937 when the motor 
vehicle excise tax was first enacted. Prior to that, automobiles were 
subject to personal property taxation. In a recent memorandum opinion, the 
Attorney General for the State of Washington indicated that there is still a 
question as to whether passage of I-695 would subject motor vehicles to 
property taxes. The opinion went on to say, however, that there was enough 
likelihood of that occurring that the Department of Revenue should make 
plans for the implementation of such a possibility. Nearly all prosecuting 
attorneys feel I-695 returns motor vehicles to the property tax rolls. One 
of the questions assessors have asked is what is the number of vehicles 
registered by county so that assessors would have some ballpark figure for 
planning. We all realize that there are going to be more than one vehicle in 
many households and therefore, there would not be a one-to-one correlation 
between the number of vehicles and the number of new personal property 
accounts required to properly assess all vehicles. We could not find an 
estimate of the number of vehicles per household, but it can probably be 
assumed the number is somewhere between two and three. Probably the most 
conservative approach would be to use two vehicles per household, dividing 
the currently registered number of motor vehicles in half, which would be an 
approximation of the number of potential new personal property accounts.



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