Seattle May Keep $160 Million Property Tax to Improve Waterfront

Seattle may impose property tax assessments of up to $160 million to transform its central waterfront because the valuation methods rightly omitted alleged property value reductions attributed to Covid-19, a Washington appellate panel ruled.

The Washington Court of Appeals on Monday rejected the argument of several property owners that Seattle’s assessments mistakenly failed to consider those property value reductions caused by Covid-19. However, no error was made because the assessments were conducted in November 2019 before the pandemic set in, rendering it irrelevant, the court said.

The property owners also haven’t shown how the pandemic affected their properties’ values, which ...