Avista Corp., the Spokane-based energy company, is the top taxpayer in Spokane County in 2012 with a record property tax bill of $5.8 million, records obtained through the Spokane County treasurer's office show.

Avista's total property taxes were assessed on 300 properties with a total taxable value of $424.9 million, up from taxes of $5.1 million a year earlier on 297 properties valued at $395.1 million, lists of the top 50 tax assessment show.

In addition to its corporate headquarters, located at 1411 E. Mission, Avista owns numerous service and training centers, generation facilities, substations, and transmission lines throughout Spokane County, says Don Falkner, Avista's tax director and assistant treasurer.

Utilities such as Avista are assessed by the state annually, Falkner says, adding, "It's not like a local assessment."

He says the book value of the company is only part of the equation.

"The state looks at our company and the total of all operations to come up with a number," Falkner says. "It's a rather complicated process to get it back to the county level."

Including its assessment for Spokane County, which is Avista's highest-value service area, the utility was assessed a total of $9.9 million in property taxes throughout the state in 2012, he says.

Taxable values are on an upward trend for most utilities, Falkner says. "We're still a growing utility, albeit at a slow rate," he says.

Prior to the 2012 tax year, Avista's largest tax bill was in 2006, when the county assessed the company $5.6 million in taxes on 277 properties valued at $390.7 million.

Avista's total property values and tax assessments fell during the recession and bottomed out in 2009 with a tax bill of $3.7 million on 305 properties valued at $333.3 million.

The top 50 assessed values for 2012 were up 6.4 percent over 2011 values, bucking the trend for the total value of the county, which was down 1.6 percent in 2012 from a year earlier, according to the county assessor's records.

Spokane County Assessor Vicki Horton says that starting this year, the county is assessing commercial properties annually as opposed to every four or five years, so commercial market changes are likely to be reflected on tax rolls more quickly.

In all, the top 50 taxpayers were assessed $38.1 million in taxes in 2012 on properties valued at $2.9 billion, which was about 7.7 percent of the $37.5 billion total assessed value of the county.

Avista's 2012 bill was more than twice as high as the second largest tax assessment, which went to Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. The Foothill Ranch, Calif.-based aluminum producer's tax bill was $2.5 million on 11 properties valued at $197 million, up from a tax bill of $1.6 million on 11 properties valued at $138 million, a year earlier.

Kaiser edged ahead of prominent Spokane real estate developer Harlan D. Douglass, who had a total tax assessment of just under $2.5 million on 319 properties valued at $183.5 million, up slightly from a tax assessment of $2.4 million on 314 properties also valued at a total of $183.5 million in 2011.

Douglass, who was the only individual named on the list, owns numerous commercial properties and has developed several multifamily housing complexes in Spokane County.

Spokane Washington Hospital Co., which operates Deaconess Hospital under the Rockwood Health System, was the county's fourth largest tax payer, with a 2012 assessment of $1.9 million on properties valued at $139.9 million, up from a tax bill of $1.3 million on properties valued at $101.5 million in 2011.

Spokane Valley Washington Hospital Co., which operates Valley Hospital also under the Rockwood Health System, was listed separately in the 2012 tax rolls and was the county's 22nd largest taxpayer, with a bill of $519,341 on properties valued at $36.9 million.

Rockwood Health System is the Spokane-based unit of Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems Inc.

CHS's largest competitor with operations here is Renton-based Providence Health & Services, which was listed as the county's 15th largest taxpayer with a bill of $747,011 on properties valued at $54.3 million, down from 2011, when it was ranked seventh, with a tax bill of $1.3 million on properties valued at $101.5 million.

Joe Robb, Providence's Eastern Washington director of marketing and public relations, says this year's listing must have omitted some of Providence's holdings, because Providence will pay more than $1 million in property taxes this year, the final payment of which is due Nov. 1.

Providence's Spokane-based unit operates Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center & Children's Hospital, Providence Holy Family Hospital, and other health-related facilities.

Qwest Corp., which has been acquired by the Monroe, La-based CenturyLink Inc. telecommunications company, is listed as the county's fifth largest taxpayer in 2012 with a total tax assessment of $1.8 million on properties valued at $129.8 million.

Inland Empire Paper Co., which owns 347 properties—the most on the list—is the county's sixth largest taxpayer with a total tax assessment of $1.6 million on properties valued at $100.9 million.

Inland Empire Paper is owned by the Cowles Co., a subsidiary of which owns the Journal of Business.

Other Cowles subsidiaries are on the list, including River Park Square shopping mall; Cowles Publishing Co., which produces the Spokesman-Review newspaper; and Centennial Properties Inc., a real estate development concern; ranking 11th, 20th, and 38th, respectively, among top taxpayers in the county.

Rounding out the top 10 taxpayers in Spokane County for 2012 are NorthTown Mall, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., BNSF Railway Co., and Spokane Valley Mall.

NorthTown Mall and Spokane Valley Mall, both of which are operated by Chicago-based real estate investment trust General Growth Properties Inc., were assessed $946,228 on properties valued at $86.8 million, and $863,662 on properties valued at $61.3 million, respectively. The tax assessments are slightly higher than in 2011, but the property value is slightly lower.

Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart, which operates five retail stores in Spokane County, was assessed $946,220 on properties valued at $71.9 million in 2012, up slightly from 2011.

Fort Worth, Texas-based BNSF was assessed $893,662 on properties valued at $70.1 million, up from the year-earlier assessment of $710,438 on properties valued at $56.8 million.