Businesses and homeowners in the city of Spokane and Spokane County will pay mostly lower property-tax levy rates this year, after seeing rates climb last year for the first time in a number of years.


Basically, we did a better job of appraising property, says John Sweetman, the countys chief deputy assessor. What we really concentrated on was new construction. We put people out early, and caught up on a lot of new construction.


That catch-up work has helped the assessors office boost its overall ratio of assessed value to market value for the county to more than 90 percent, which is slightly above the state average, he says, adding, The more value we have, the lower the levy rates go.


Sweetman says another factor that contributed to the lower levy rates was that some taxing districts asked for less money than they were legally entitled to request.


The tax-levy rate in the city of Spokane this year is $14.83 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. Thats a decrease of 68 cents from last year, which means that the owner of a house with an assessed value of $125,000 would pay about $1,854 in property taxes in 2000, down from about $1,939 in 1999. Businesses will see comparable decreases, with amounts varying depending on the value of a property.


The new levy rates became effective earlier this year when the assessors office certified property taxes for 2000 collection to the county treasurer, whos responsible for collecting the taxes. The assessors office establishes property values for the purpose of allocating taxes fairly among taxpayers. It also determines the levy rates that allow the countys 54 taxing districts to receive the amount of money they are requesting, within limits set by Washington state law.


The average combined levy rate for the county this year fell even more than the levy rate in the city of Spokane, slipping back to $15.11 per $1,000 of assessed value from $16.08 last year. It had hovered a little under $15 for the four previous years.


The actual levy rate assessed on property in unincorporated areas of Spokane County depends on where the property is, since the various utility, fire, and school districts that serve different parts of the county each have their own levy rates. Still, the $15.11 average serves as an indicator for whats happening countywide.


An area covered by Mead School District and Fire District 9 has the highest combined levy in the county again this year, at $18.61 per $1,000 of assessed value. Repeating with the lowest combined rate in the county is an area in the northern part of the county thats within the Newport School Districts boundaries.


Among all of the incorporated cities and towns in the county, Spangle has the highest individual levy rate, at $6.10 per $1,000, and Millwood has the lowest, at $1.52 per $1,000. Spokanes levy rate was second highest at $4.79. Those rates are coupled with county, state, school, and junior tax district levies to give taxpayers in those cities an overall tax levy rate.


The assessors office put the total taxable value of the county at $19.23 billion for 1999, on which this years tax bills are based. Thats up 4.1 percent from $18.46 billion in 1998. Last year, the countys total taxable value rose only 3.6 percent, which was the lowest percentage increase since 1992.


About $290 million in property taxes is expected to be levied here this year, not including special-benefit districts such as those set up for weed and flood control. The total is down from about $297 million last year, Sweetman says.