Anacortes property values drop

Property owners whose property has changed should have started receiving revised assessments this week. About 45,000 properties of the 80,000 countywide will received notices that their property value changed this year.

Elsewhere in the county, property owners in Concrete saw the sharpest drop, doing down about 27 percent while values in Burlington dropped 8.2 percent, Sedro-Woolley properties dropped 8.7 percent and Hamilton dropped 8.2 percent.

Mount Vernon and La Conner properties dropped much less, with Mount Vernon down 3.2 percent and La Conner down 1.8 percent.

The tax notices come with a letter which attempts to explain the state's complicated tax system.

Don Munks, the new County Assessor, says the changes will do little or nothing to actual taxes paid by owners because of the way Washington state handles taxes. The tax system is based on what each local government budgets to spend. The Assessor then apportions taxes.

Property owners have until February 19 to appeal their assessments.