‘Perfect storm.’ How West Richland fire levy got left off tax statements, what’s next

The error with the West Richland fire district tax collection came as the county assessor’s office was under a “perfect storm of staffing issues,” said Assessor Bill Spencer in a reply to a complaint.

But such errors happen often enough that Washington state law addresses how to handle them, he said.

In August voters approved a tax levy lift to allow Benton Fire District 4, which covers West Richland and the surrounding area, to collect more money from taxpayers for six years starting in 2023.

The district set its budget for 2023, as required by law, in late 2022.

Based on the budget it signed a contract for remodeling of the fire station at 2604 Bombing Range Road in West Richland and hired three firefighter paramedics to staff an additional unit, which the levy lift was supposed to cover.

But then the district was left scrambling this year when the money to be collected by the levy lift was left off property tax bills.

The district shifted money around and is keeping expenses as low as possible this year so it can honor the remodeling contract and keep the new employees. But it will not be able to buy a staff vehicle as planned and may have to also delay buying a truck for fighting grass fire.

Benton County Administrator Jerrod MacPherson said the county commissioners are aware of the issue with the fire district tax collection.

But ensuring new levies are added to tax statements is the responsibility under Washington law of the assessor, who is independently elected and not under the control of the commissioners, MacPherson said.

Spencer said in a reply to a recent letter of complaint from a West Richland resident that since 2020 his office has been unable to offer adequate wages for the position of levy deputy.

As a result four people have been trained for that position, but they did not stay with the job, he said.

Most recently the levy deputy left in the middle of the month-long levy calculation for 46 districts, some with multiple levies.

“This is a complicated job that requires extensive training, and we lost this support halfway through the process,” Spencer said.

While the tax bill error was not caught by those who stepped in to complete the levy work or by two levy specialists brought in to help with training, the levy deputy had at least completed the calculation for the Benton Fire District 4 levy lift before leaving, according to Spencer.

The assessor’s office attempted to work with the Washington state Department of Revenue to send out corrected tax statements, but without success, he said.

Addressing fire tax issue

The Department of Revenue says the amount that cannot be collected this year is about $471,000.

Benton County can collect some of the lost revenue in future years but is hampered by statutory maximums for annual levy increases.

The money not collected this year could be added to one, two or three of the next annual tax statements, under Washington law.

Because of the limits on annual levy increases, the county could collect the largest share of the missing money by spreading the collection out over three years.

But without a significant increase to property tax value in the fire district, it won’t be able to make up all the funds not included on this year’s tax statements even in three years, according to the Department of Revenue.

The Washington state Legislature approved a bill that is awaiting the signature of Gov. Jay Inslee that would allow a levy error correction to exceed the statutory maximum rate limit. However, it wold not be retroactive to cover the current tax error.

Spencer has been working to establish processes and workflow changes to prevent a similar problem from happening again in Benton County.

Yearly levy training is being provided to each taxing district and the use of standardized Department of Revenue forms is being encouraged.

In addition, a recent wage increase may help address staffing problems, according to Spencer.