Bryant: State agency 'neglected' taxpayers

Republican Bill Bryant, who hopes to unseat Democratic Governor Jay Inslee in the November 8 election, said the unfair tax situation in La Conner shows “either incompetence or disinterest,” by agencies working under the current governor.

The Washington Department of Revenue crafted a property tax policy that hit La Conner hard when homes were taken off the county’s tax rolls and a $1.8 million tax burden was shifted to the remaining taxpayers. Some residents shouldered tax increases of thousands of dollars.

It happened, Bryant claims, because “Inslee’s Department of Revenue conducted a lopsided comment period that neglected taxpayers’ interests.”

As this newspaper has reported, documentation provided by the state agency shows that the state’s tribes were invited to send their representatives, mostly lawyers, to two meetings with Department of Revenue officials. But the state’s county assessors, who are elected officials accountable to taxpayers and voters, were not brought in for special consultations. The agency now says it contacted assessors who attended a conference for county officials in October 2013 and also at another conference for assessors in January 2014.

The state agency’s Property Tax Advisory guidance memo issued to county assessors in March, 2014 came after the 9th Circuit Appellate Court overturned a federal court decision that allowed Thurston County to collect personal property tax on the Great Wolf Lodge water park structures that were owned by a corporation and built on leased Chehalis Reservation land.

Until last year, Skagit County assessed personal property tax on the buildings, but not the land, for homes owned by non-Indians built on Swinomish Indian Tribal Community reservation land. In response to the Department of Revenue’s guidance, 931 homes in Shelter Bay and in the Pull & Be Damned Road neighborhood were taken off the tax rolls, and the Swinomish tribe began assessing its own property tax on the non-Indian homeowners.

At the time the tax guidance was developed, the director of the Washington Department of Revenue was Carol K. Nelson, an Inslee appointee. The current director, Vikki Smith, has been with the department since 1970 and was appointed director by Inslee in 2015 after Nelson left.

Inslee has told La Conner Mayor Ramon Hayes and our state legislators that the taxation issue is a federal matter and not something the state can solve.

Bryant doesn’t agree that it is only up to the feds, because it was a state agency that guided the local response to the Great Wolf Lodge ruling. He says he views the outcome as “a function of (Inslee’s) priorities.”

Challenger Bryant has been putting out a message that it’s time for a “fresh perspective.” Democrats have held the state house since 1985, when former Gov. John Spellman, a Republican, left office.

According to Vote Smart, Inslee’s $6.9 million re-election war chest includes $71,709 in donations from tribal governments and about $482,000 from lawyers and lobbyists.

In contrast, Bryant’s $2.3 million Vote Smart campaign total doesn’t show any tribal donations and about $25,000 from the lawyers and lobbyist category.

Nevertheless, “It’s not about Republicans and Democrats,” Bryant said. “It’s about restoring competence to the Governor’s office.”