San Juan County property appraisals are totally outdated and the County Council knows it.

They have postponed the reappraisal of Orcas Island by an additional year. On Orcas recent sales of land only were actually at 62 percent of the appraised value. Land plus building sales on Orcas for the same period were at 73 percent of the appraised value. San Juan Island is almost as wrongly appraised. San Juan land only sales were at 58 percent of appraised values and Land plus building were at 85 percent of appraised value. Lopez sales values are within 5% of appraised values. All the sales data is based on December 2010.

Orcas was appraised at the top of the market, but as the San Juan data shows, the inequity is compounded by declines in real value for two years in a row.

When the County Council postponed the reappraisal of Orcas Island they removed the legal basis for their entire system of property appraisals by knowingly collecting taxes in excess of true value for an additional year.

Changing the rules to do that is a legal no no. I understand why they did it, the county desperately needs the revenue. Their cover story is that they don’t have the money to hire an appraiser. The council made the same excuse for not reappraising completed houses which they know are being taxed well below their true value. Having a legal and equitable method of property appraisal is a not a choice, it is a legal requirement.

The state of Washington should investigate.

Richard Steinhardt

Orcas Island