information from King County

King County Assessor John Wilson today released his April 2019 Taxpayer Transparency Tool, a website which provides each King County 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. 

Residents in areas with property tax measures on the ballot will be able to see how those measures will affect them. The following property tax measures are currently before voters in the tax transparency tool:

·Lake Washington School District capital projects levy

·Hospital District 2 (Evergreen hospital) bonds

·Vashon Island Park District Levy

The tool can be found at http://localscape.spatialest.com/#kingcountyassessor/Tax. There is a link to the tool on left side menu of the Assessor’s web page https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/assessor.aspx

“Taxpayers have a right to know where their money is going, and what each proposed property tax levy will cost them,” said Wilson.  “Property taxes keep going up.  We need to make sure the public understands why.”

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 tool was introduced by Assessor Wilson and first used during the April special election in 2018.

The Taxpayer Transparency Tool was developed for the King County Assessor by Spatialest Inc, a unique enterprise software company focusing on Location, Value and Technology. The company also created “Localscape” for the King County Assessor in 2014, a map-based visualization tool that aggregates data to present information. (http://localscape.spatialest.com/#kingcountyassessor/).