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Home My WebLink About022225 email - Re_ Property ID 10360 Owner 19726 William Kenneweg Ronni GanapolerALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them. My dear Jeff, Stacie, and staff. We are including the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners to make them aware of this situation. At current status we still live in a democracy so we would like our voices heard. Reading your letter dated February 20, 2025, please put yourselves in our shoes (pensioners, fixed income). Look again at the attached spreadsheet. The increases are insane. You’re comfortable with this? You think this is fair? There is no way this place is worth $600,000, let alone $300,000 (except on AI driven websites that we feel we have to compete with). What are my options? Deconstruct the house, sell the materials, and then move a used trailer onto the property? How about voting for an anti-tax Tim Eyman type person? When should we sign up for affordable housing? Please tell us what our options are while you ‘legally’ tax us as much as the law allows, while you’re quoting the laws. We didn’t contact the board of equalization last year, feeling the tax burden but deciding that it was a shared pain. This year will have to be different due to these unbridled increases. We plan to attend the County Commissioners meetings the first Monday of every month at 0900 either in person or by zoom to get a better understanding of what’s going in our wonderful county and why we’re feeling that we’re getting pushed out of it. Many thanks for the ear, all. Signed: Unhappy. William Kenneweg Rachel (Ronni) Ganapoler On Feb 20, 2025, at 18:03, Jeff Chapman <JChapman@co.jefferson.wa.us> wrote: Thanks Stacie. Bill and Rachel I did indeed look over your information. As you can imagine, we do get many questions about the changes in the level of assessments and taxes. As you probably know, they isn’t a 1 to 1 relationship since Washington State is on a budget based system, not a rate based system. What this means is there isn’t a set rate like with sales tax that is multiplied by a value to produce a tax amount. The way property tax works is that each taxing district sets a budget amount for the district. Each year I divide this expected collection amount by the total assessment to produce a rate. That derived levy rate is then multiplied by each individual assessment to produce a tax. The total tax should equal the budget amount. Assessments in the Cape George/Hastings Ave area did go up in value more than some of the other areas in the Port Townsend School District, and this created a tax shift. This area was part of our 6 year reinspection area. This year, we are reinspecting properties within the City of Port Townsend. Another factor for the (statewide) State School levies, which have the greatest increase, is an error in King County from the prior year that caused taxpayers in King County to pay more of the State levies then they should have. This year, those taxpayers are getting a refund, and that refund is being paid by the taxpayers in the rest of the State. Our County’s tax debt share is near $500,000 with the knowledge that had there not been an error in King County, we would have been charged it last year. While regular levies that are subject to a a 1% + new construction budget increase each year, voted levies like local schools and FD/EMS lid lifts are not held to that. They can ask for much higher increases from the voters. In general, local school levies and FD/EMS levies are able to keep up with inflation by having significant property tax increases approved by the voters. These may be “replacement levies”, but that doesn’t mean the replacement amounts don’t also include significant tax increases. In general, the tax increases over the past 3 years are somewhat in step with the large inflation increases. I certainly understand that it is a burden. The legislature has dozens of property tax bills currently under consideration which include a number of new exemption proposals. The caveat to this is that since property taxes are budget based, limiting or exempting some assessments means a shift of taxes to the other properties not receiving the added assessment relief. The only true way to avoid this is to limit district budget increases, most of these being voter approved for things like schools, fire, and emergency response. I am on the Assessors’ Legislative Committee, and we are supporting an expansion of the senior citizen exemption program (which we know will increase the tax shift). One problem we have with other bills is that they would be very difficult to implement with the staffing levels in rural counties and a lack of the kinds of data needed to properly apply them. And they are all tax shifts, so there are winners and losers with some paying less or no taxes being offset by others paying more. I hope this information helps. These are tough times for certain. Thank you, Jeff Chapman | Jefferson County Assessor P.O. Box 1220 |Port Townsend, WA 98368 360-385-9105 From: Stacie Prada <SPrada@co.jefferson.wa.us <mailto:SPrada@co.jefferson.wa.us> > Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2025 3:33 PM To: Wm Kenneweg <wkenneweg@gmail.com <mailto:wkenneweg@gmail.com> >; treasurerstaff <treasurerstaff@co.jefferson.wa.us <mailto:treasurerstaff@co.jefferson.wa.us> >; Jeff Chapman <JChapman@co.jeffers on.wa.us <mailto:JChapman@co.jefferson.wa.us> > Subject: RE: Property ID 10360 Owner 19726 William Kenneweg Ronni Ganapoler Good afternoon, Bill & Ronni, Thank you for your message. I understand your concerns, as I too have property in the City of Port Townsend. I wasn’t able to open or access the data you shared, but I understand your position. I’ve attached the statement of account showing amounts from 2013 through 2025. I spoke with Jeff, and I understand he’s going to respond with more regarding the amounts. I see you made installment payments last year, and you can continue to do so if you like. Please know I welcome hearing from you. Wishing you very well. Stacie Prada Jefferson County Treasurer | PO Box 571 | Port Townsend, WA 98368 | (360) 385-9154 | www.co.jefferson.wa.us <http://www.co.jefferson.wa.us/> From: Wm Kenneweg <wkenneweg@gmail.com <mailto:wkenneweg@gmail.com> > Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2025 4:51 PM To: treasurerstaff <treasurerstaff@co.jefferson.wa.us <mailto:treasurerstaff@co.jefferson.wa.us> >; Jeff Chapman <JChapman@co.jefferson.wa.us <mailto:JChapman@co.jefferson.wa.us> > Subject: Property ID 10360 Owner 19726 William Kenneweg Ronni Ganapoler ALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them. My dear Stacie and Jeff. I hope this email finds you well and in good health. Received our 2025 tax statement today. Not happy. Living on a fixed income. I’m 70 this year. Spouse will be 78. Life is getting a bit too complicated for us. Made retirement calculations and retired in 2017. You are starting to scare us. Just saying. Went to talk with the assessor Dallas. He asked me a question “what do you think your property is worth?” I haven’t the foggiest idea. Sometimes I still think in 1970 dollars. My statement is we did not buy an asset. We built a home. This is our hat rack. For 40 years we've lived in Port Townsend and have contributed to this community. We plan to finish our lives here. We know this is a shared pain. There are a lot of concerns for our community. Housing, homelessness, schooling, the darn potholes, etc. The thing that concerns me is my hesitancy to vote for beneficial levies like for school, EMS, Hospital, etc, when we look at our tax burden. Please look at the enclosed spreadsheet and understand our concerns. Many thanks! Bill and Rachel (aka Ronni)