S-1439.1  _______________________________________________

                   SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 8213

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State of Washington      54th Legislature     1995 Regular Session

By Senators Sutherland, Oke, McCaslin and Rasmussen

Read first time 02/08/95.  Referred to Committee on Ways & Means.

Amending the state Constitution to limit tax increases on residential real property.

    BE IT RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON, IN LEGISLATIVE SESSION ASSEMBLED:

    THAT, At the next general election to be held in this state there shall be submitted to the qualified voters of the state for their approval and ratification, or rejection, an amendment to Article VII, of the Constitution of the state of Washington by adding a new section to read as follows:

    Article VII, section . . .  Notwithstanding the requirement for uniform taxes contained in section 1 of this Article, beginning with taxes due in 1997, the aggregate of all ad valorem property tax levies upon residential real property by the state and all taxing districts shall not increase by more than four percent per year, except upon sale or a change of ownership of the property.  In applying this limitation for any year, the taxes due in the previous year shall be the amount of taxes that could have been levied on the property if the assessed value of the property for taxes due in 1997 were equal to its true and fair value.

    This limit may be exceeded if approved by the voters.

    This limit shall not apply to the first levy on increases in value resulting from improvements made to property in the previous year.

    The legislature may place such other restrictions and conditions upon the applicability of the limitation under this section as it shall deem proper.

    This section does not apply to taxes that have been approved by the voters under section 2 of this Article.

    BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the secretary of state shall cause notice of the foregoing constitutional amendment to be published at least four times during the four weeks next preceding the election in every legal newspaper in the state.

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