The Spokane County Assessor’s Office is running behind schedule in 2017 property tax assessments for the 2018 tax year.

Due to a shortage of appraisers, the Assessor’s Office won’t complete 2017 valuations in time to send notices to property owners by the end of the month to meet a statewide schedule for placing and listing valuations of property, says Byron Hodgson, the county’s chief deputy assessor.

“We’ve been on the state calendar at least 10 years, and we’ve been mailing notices at end of May,” Hodgson says.

He projects that assessment notices probably won’t be completed and mailed this year until September or October.

Hodgson says county government has difficulty competing with the private sector in terms of recruiting qualified appraisers.

“We had eight vacancies in the residential appraisal section,” he says. Six vacancies were created by retiring appraisers, some of whom had decades of experience.

“We couldn’t fill the positions, and nobody applied for them for 10 months,” he says. “There’s a tremendous shortage of appraisers nationwide.”

The Assessor’s Office recently has hired four licensed appraisers and three trainees who are expected to be promoted to appraiser positions. It typically takes two to three years for a trainee to become fully skilled in appraising.

“We’re still missing one (appraiser),” Hodgson says.

At full staff, the Assessor’s Office has 43 employees, including 14 residential, eight commercial, and three personal property appraisers.

In a recent progress report for the 2017 assessment year for 2018 property taxes, Assessor Vicki Horton says the office needs three additional employees, including two appraisers.

Though the valuation placing and listing schedule is set in state law, it doesn’t carry a penalty for noncompliance.

Property owners will have at least 30 days to file an appeal once they receive their notice of assessments.

“For property owners, there won’t be any real change as far as ability to appeal or call us,” Hodgson says of the delay. He adds, however, “It puts a crunch on the Assessor’s Office to get all the information completed and sent to taxing districts for levy purposes.”

The progress report says the Assessor’s Office hopes to assess all new construction this year in time to include new construction values on the 2018 tax rolls.

However, Horton says in the report, “It is not a certainty … . There are unknown factors such as the performance of the new hires and the amount of new construction to assess.”

The current permit value for new construction not yet on the tax rolls is $1.3 billion, including tax-exempt properties such as schools and government properties, Horton says in the report.

“The real estate market has rebounded to prerecession levels and beyond,” she says.

Record property values

Meantime, the overall property value for Spokane County continued into record territory for the second consecutive year in 2016.

Spokane County’s total assessed value for 2016 was $42.4 billion, a 5.5 percent increase compared with the year-earlier record valuation totaling $40.2 billion.

Hodgson says the Assessor’s Office estimates the county’s total 2017 valuation for the 2018 tax year will top $45 billion.

The 2016 valuation represents the fourth consecutive annual increase since the county’s total assessed value fell to $36.4 billion in 2012 as a result of the Great Recession. The previous record valuation was $38.8 billion in 2009, just as the recession’s effects were taking hold.

The 2016 valuation also resulted in a record total property tax levy for 2017.

This year’s countywide property tax levy totaled $563 million, an increase of 3.4 percent, or $18.3 million.

Hodgson says the Assessor’s Office is required to assess properties at market value.

“The public relates that to taxes, but in theory, if values go up, rates go down, unless there’s increased spending,” he says. “If there’s no increase in spending and values are increased uniformly, there’s no increase in taxing.”

The average total property tax rate for this year is $13.33 per $1,000 of valuation, down from $13.60 last year.

Under the average rate, property taxes for a home with a median assessed value of $168,000 would be $2,239.

New construction in 2016 accounted for $587.5 million in value added to this year’s tax roll, the highest new construction total since 2009.

Factoring in the average levy rate, new construction added roughly $7.8 million to property taxes due this year.

Trends in new construction valuation generally lag a year behind building permits issued, because the structures have to be 40 percent complete and weatherproofed with roofs, windows, and doors to be added to the following year’s tax rolls.

The first half 2017 property tax payments were due April 30, and the second half are due Oct. 31.

The county has 55 taxing districts, including school districts, incorporated cities, fire districts, county roads, and libraries. Some taxing districts overlap, creating 112 unique tax-code areas.

The county government’s share of property taxes amounts to 10.6 percent of the total tax assessments.

Most of the property tax assessment, 55 percent, is divvied up among school districts. Incorporated cities split 16.2 percent of the total tax levy.

The Assessor’s Office revalues real estate annually and physically inspects each property at least once every six years.

The county assessed 230,612 tax parcels in 2016 for the 2017 tax year.

Property owners appealed 1,304 assessments last year, roughly level with year-earlier appeals.

Of the 2016 assessment appeals, 809 were settled or withdrawn. The Spokane County Board of Equalization heard 495 cases and overruled the Assessor’s Office on 33 of them.