Two Perspectives on Senate Bill 5798: Permitting Larger Property Tax Increases

by Stuart Jenner.

Public comments pro/con on this bill are due Monday March 31, 2025 by 3pm.

Washington State Senate Bill 5798 would enable cities and other government bodies to raise property taxes more easily than is currently the case. The bill had a first reading on March 21, 2025 and there’s a Ways and Means committee hearing on Monday, March 31 at 4 pm. 

If you have comments, want to testify, or want to go on the record with a pro or con position but no comments, and you want them included in the committee hearing, submit them by 3 pm on Monday March 31 using the form on this page.  

We received a request from Des Moines Councilmember JC Harris asking that a post he’s written opposing the bill be printed as a letter to the editor. His page links to a Seattle Times op ed co-signed by Des Moines Mayor Traci Buxton that was published March 25.

In order to make sure Mayor Buxton’s comments were current, we reached out to her with some questions. In the op-ed excerpts below, you may wonder, as we did, “are these people even talking about the same bill?” Reading the bill summary on the overall bill page by Senate staff leaves a few questions unanswered. We asked for clarification on March 29, but have yet to receive a response.

Here are some excerpts from Mayor Buxton’s op-ed:

“There is one potential tool that the Legislature could leverage to help us provide more for our constituents: lifting the optional local annual property tax cap. Currently, the total amount a jurisdiction collects from property taxes cannot increase by more than 1% from one year to the next. Voters can approve a higher amount, but only temporarily.

“Some facts about this option:

“It’s optional to use: Our Legislature is not considering an automatic tax. They are considering giving permission to city councils to tax.”

Here is an excerpt from Councilmember Harris’s post:

“These groups [SB 5798 supporters] take pains to say that this is not ‘automatic’; that the bill only gives cities a choice. That is completely disingenuous. The key element of SB5798 is to allow property taxes to rise automatically based on inflation. If inflation rises, the ability to tax you, without a vote, also rises.”

Here the bill summary:

The proposed bill seeks to reform property tax regulations in Washington State to better align funding for essential public services, such as education and public safety, with population growth and inflation. A key change is the modification of the existing one percent cap on property tax revenue growth, which has been identified as inadequate for addressing the needs of expanding communities. The bill introduces a new definition of “inflation” based on the consumer price index and establishes a “population change” metric to facilitate more flexible tax revenue growth. Additionally, it clarifies limit factors for property tax collections to ensure local governments can adequately fund critical services.

The legislation also expands the senior citizen property tax relief program by exempting participants from state levies, preventing tax rate increases due to this exemption. It mandates that property tax statements clearly identify the state property tax as the state school levy, enhancing transparency. The bill sets deadlines for tax statement distribution and includes new language to categorize parts of the state property tax. It outlines conditions for delinquent taxes, allows for electronic billing, and provides options for payment agreements. Furthermore, it includes provisions for waiving interest and penalties for qualified taxpayers facing foreclosure and specifies that no interest or penalties will be assessed during periods of armed conflict for active duty military personnel. The act is intended to support state government and public institutions, applying to taxes levied for collection in 2026 and beyond.

Statutes affected:
Original Bill: 84.55.005, 84.04.140, 84.55.0101, 84.36.381, 84.56.02

We wish we had more time to sort out the details of this bill, and the implications. We will update this story if or when we receive responses to our requests.