BILL REQ. #: H-0819.1
State of Washington | 60th Legislature | 2007 Regular Session |
Read first time 01/23/2007. Referred to Committee on Finance.
AN ACT Relating to reconvening boards of equalization; and amending RCW 84.08.060.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1 RCW 84.08.060 and 1988 c 222 s 9 are each amended to read
as follows:
The department of revenue shall have power to direct and to order
any county board of equalization to raise or lower the valuation of any
taxable property, or to add any property to the assessment list, or to
perform or complete any other duty required by statute. The department
of revenue may require any such board of equalization to reconvene
after its adjournment for the purpose of performing any order or
requirement made by the department of revenue and may make such orders
as it shall determine to be just and necessary. The department may
require any county board of equalization to reconvene at any time for
the purpose of performing or completing any duty or taking any action
it might lawfully have performed or taken at any of its previous
meetings. ((No)) However, a board may ((be reconvened)) not be
reconvened later than three years after the date of adjournment of its
regularly convened session, regardless of when the request for an order
to reconvene was received by the department, and may not be reconvened
at the request of any taxpayer who claims that the assessed valuation
placed upon such property by the county assessor exceeds the property's
true and fair value. If such board of equalization shall fail or
refuse forthwith to comply with any such order or requirement of the
department of revenue, the department of revenue shall have power to
take any other appropriate action, or to make such correction or change
in the assessment list, and such corrections and changes shall be a
part of the record of the proceedings of the said board of
equalization: PROVIDED, That in all cases where the department of
revenue shall raise the valuation of any property or add property to
the assessment list, it shall give notice either for the same time and
in the same manner as is now required in like cases of county boards of
equalization, or if it shall deem such method of giving notice
impracticable it shall give notice by publication thereof in a
newspaper of general circulation within the county in which the
property affected is situated once each week for two consecutive weeks,
and the department of revenue shall not proceed to raise such valuation
or add such property to the assessment list until a period of five days
shall have elapsed subsequent to the date of the last publication of
such notice: PROVIDED FURTHER, That appeals to the board of tax
appeals by any taxpayer or taxing unit concerning any action of the
county board of equalization shall not raise the valuation of the
property to an amount greater than the larger of either the valuation
of the property by the county assessor or the valuation of the property
assigned by the county board of equalization. Such notice shall give
the legal description of each tract of land involved, or a general
description in case of personal property; the tax record-owner thereof;
the assessed value thereof determined by the county board of
equalization in case the property is on the assessment roll; and the
assessed value thereof as determined by the department of revenue and
shall state that the department of revenue proposes to increase the
assessed valuation of such property to the amount stated and to add
such property to the assessment list at the assessed valuation stated.
The necessary expense incurred by the department of revenue in making
such reassessment and/or adding such property to the assessment list
shall be borne by the county or township in which the property as
reassessed and/or so added to the assessment list is situated and shall
be paid out of the proper funds of such county upon the order of the
department of revenue.