I would like to take this opportunity to correct a misrepresentation about King County property taxes. In a recent letter to the editor, a correspondent stated “keep in mind property values have increased significantly in the last year so local governments have revenue cushions.”

Nothing could be farther from the truth. When voters approve levies, they authorize the total amount of property taxes that a jurisdiction can collect from property owners.  Increasing property values do not increase the total amount of taxes that a jurisdiction, like Redmond, can collect. Increasing property values only causes a recalculation of the levy rate, which is the ratio of total taxes to be collected divided by total assessed value of all property in the city. In times of increasing property values, the property levy rate actually decreases.

While it is true that changing property values may reallocate taxes collected between individual property owners, the total amount of property tax collected by the city remains unchanged.

Unfortunately for cities, while the amount of property tax collected remains constant, the cost of city services increase in proportion to the rate of inflation. In that scenario, each year the dollars collected from a stable property tax purchase less and less of the goods and services necessary to maintain the services provided by the city.

This simple fact of how King County property taxes are levied, calculated and collected is one of the reasons why the proponents of propositions 1 and 2 urge you to say “yes.”

Pat Vaché

Redmond