The full impact is 9.4 cents per $1,000 Assessed Value and is costing taxpayers $1.8 million a year in 2023.
The full impact of the proposal is not what BeMiller focused on at the meeting so it is understandable that the story missed the real bottom line. It is not the 3.5 cents per $1,000 being shifted ("BeMiller provided a slide showing how the tax shift could increase levy rates by around 3 to 3.5 cents per $1,000 in assessed value.) It is more than twice that amount.
BeMiller's other slide showed (if you did the subtraction) a levy lift of 9.4 cents per $1,000 assessed value and will increase our taxes by $1.8 million a year to pay for developer's tax break that will be greatly expanded by the action taken last night.
To be fair, Aaron BeMiller actually had a slide that showed this effect and it was shown last night and handed out in advance to the Council but the council members chose to focus on the 3.5 cents (rounded up during the discussion as 4 cents).
The real impact of the proposal was obscured by the slides that that focused only on the OLYMPIA City share of property taxes and not the full tax bill that the people pay which includes schools, libraries, etc. Yes, the entire tax rate for every taxing district is affected by the tax shift. Heck, the impact from Olympia schools is more than the city's at 4.7 cents per $1,000 AV.
And while taxpayers in Olympia will pay the lion's share, taxpayers county wide will be chipping in some money to pay a share of the $1.8 million a year -- for example Thurston County, Medic One, and Port of Olympia.
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