A newly expanded Washington state property tax relief program is expected to lower tax bills for the households of more than 10,000 Spokane County seniors and people with disabilities, with thousands more newly eligible individuals expected to enroll.

Senate Bill 6162 was signed into law last month, expanding the income threshold of Washington state’s Property Tax Exemption for Senior Citizens and Disabled Persons program.

In Spokane County, the top annual income threshold per household has risen to $74,000, up from $50,000, meaning that seniors and people with disabilities who have a combined annual household income of $74,000 or less will be eligible under the program's latest expansion.

The law additionally replaces itemized deductions with a $7,500 standard deduction, creates a $6,000 annual rental income exclusion, and expands eligibility for disabled veterans from 80% disability to 40%. The changes are expected to prevent seniors and people with disabilities — who are often on a fixed income — from being priced out of their homes.

Spokane County Assessor Tom Konis, who helped draft the bill and lobbied for its passage, says the amendments made to the program help it keep up with inflation, rising home values, seniors on fixed incomes, and major regional differences in housing costs.

“This means, beginning in 2027, virtually thousands of Spokane County seniors and disabled residents in Spokane County will qualify for property tax exemptions,” he says. “This will reduce the burden of property taxes and help many of them stay in their homes.” 

Mike Volz, Spokane County Treasurer and Washington state representative for the 6th Legislative District, emphasizes the importance of the bill among rising costs that often price people out of the homes they’ve paid for decades prior.

“We get calls all the time from taxpayers that, quite frankly, they are getting taxed out of their homes,” Volz says. “We hear from seniors over and over again at an increasing rate that they’re paying way more for property taxes than they did for their mortgage.”

To qualify for the exemption, applicants must be 61 years of age or at least 57 years of age and the surviving spouse or domestic partner of a person who was exempt at the time of their death. People who have retired due to a disability or disabled veterans with a service-connected disability of at least 40% beginning Jan. 1, 2027, or those receiving a 100% rate of compensation from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for a service-connected disability, also qualify, according to the bill.

There are three income threshold levels for the property tax relief program. In Spokane County, Level 1 is for household income of $56,000 or less; Level 2 ranges from $56,001 to $65,000; and Level 3 ranges from $65,001 to $74,000.

The taxable value of someone’s home depends on which income threshold level they fall into. Each level is subject to exemption from excess state and local levies, with the first level receiving an exemption from all excess levies and the state property tax levy.

The total number of residents in the program in Spokane County is 10,700, says Konis. All of those households will automatically move to Level 1 now, he adds. Additionally, his office will be sending out letters to previous applicants who now qualify. He and Volz say they anticipate the new measure, coupled with their efforts to promote it at town halls and senior centers, will draw between 4,000 and 6,000 new enrollees.

“We’ve already drafted the letter that we’re going to send out telling them that because of (Senate Bill) 6162 passing, they will all move down to level one,” Konis says. 

The amendments to the program have been years in the making and are an effort to modernize the program, taking into account various factors such as inflation and cost of living, Konis says.

The latest tax relief expansion follows the passage of House Bill 1355 in 2023, which increased the income thresholds for the 2024-2026 tax seasons and also changed the program’s review cycle of income thresholds from five years to every three years. The next scheduled statewide recalculation is addressing the 2027-2029 tax season.

Property taxes are assessed at about $11 per $1,000 of assessed value countywide, changing slightly from school district to school district, Konis says, adding that school districts receive the largest portion of the total property tax collected from an individual.

About 60% of Spokane County property taxes fund school districts, Volz says. Property taxes collected in 2026 are expected to total $959 million, with school taxes making up $561 million, of which $347 million is from voter-approved excess levies. 

For Volz and Konis, who have been working on program improvements for years, the work is not done. While they are celebrating their wins, they are scheduling community meetings and speaking events to educate and enroll as many people as possible in the program, emphasizing that helping people age in their homes is the best possible option for seniors.

“All the data shows that the longer they stay in the home, the better the health outcome,” Volz says.