Swinomish sets 2015 tax rate

To ease the minds of homeowners who live on tribal trust land in the La Conner area, the Swinomish Indian Senate on Tuesday announced that the property tax for 2015 will be equal to what Skagit County would assess if the property were to stay on the county tax rolls.

“Taxpayers can rest assured and budget for their taxes in 2015 just as they have in the past,” Swinomish Chairman Brian Cladoosby said in a prepared statement.

Meanwhile the Tribal Senate, which is the governing body for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, continues to work on a permanent tax code for 2015, which is expected to be finished by year’s end.

For the past several months, the Tribal Senate and staff members have been working long hours to react to the so-called “Great Wolf” decision, in which a federal court decreed last year that tribes are the only entity entitled to tax structures built on land held in trust by the U.S. government.

Previously homes in Shelter Bay and in the Pull & Be Damned Road neighborhood of La Conner, which are built on leased Swinomish Reservation land, have been assessed property tax by the county based on the value of the structures. The county funnels the taxes it collects to the various tax-supported agencies.

Swinomish was not a party in the Great Wolf case, which grew out of a lawsuit in Thurston County involving the county assessing taxes on a resort built on Chehalis tribal land. Snohomish County to the south of us moved to issue tax refunds for structures, mostly big box stores, built on Tulalip land.

Last month the Swinomish Senate essentially put a stop to the refund debate in Skagit County when it adopted a tax code that laid claim to all taxes paid by homeowners on leased land going back to 2011 and decreed that the money collected through this year would be allocated to the nine tax supported entities that already received it.

The prospect of refunding some $5 million in property taxes was a nightmare for the agencies, especially the La Conner School District. It was also scary for remaining tax payers within that district, who would ultimately be stuck with the bill.

Future distribution of taxes collected by the tribe is something the Senate is still working on. In the meantime, “we will continue to keep taxpayers informed as we move forward,” Cladoosby said.

Swinomish has set up a website with information for taxpayers and also a link they can use to email questions. Find the links at http://www.swinomish-nsn.gov.