February 10th, 2004

Homestead Exemption Now!

Homestead Exemption would provide relief to low and middle income homeowners who need it most.

Contact: Steve Zemke

206-999-6095

stevezemke (at) msn (dot) com

Seattle, WA— Thirty seven states have some form of Property Tax Homestead Exemption. A Washington State Homestead Exemption would exempt the first $30,000 of your property taxes on your primary residence from state and local property taxes and special levies.

The great thing about a Property Tax Homestead Exemption is that it would not cut local services like police and fire protection, parks and road repair, public utilities and libraries as Tim Eyman’s Initiative 864 would! A Homestead Exemption, by being revenue neutral, collects the same amount of money for local services we all depend on, by shifting the remaining property tax to the nonexempt portion of the property tax base.

A Property Tax Homestead Exemption directs property tax relief to those most in need – middle and lower valued homes. Its emphasis is to protect the homeowner’s primary residence, not give million dollar tax windfalls to big businesses as Initiative 864 does.

Initiative 864 gives the biggest tax cuts to wealthy property owners including big corporations in this state. Did you know that some commercial property tax owners like Boeing and the large private utilities will receive huge tax breaks of $1 million or more under Initiative 864? Meanwhile the average homeowner will receive a cut of only several hundred dollars as well as a huge cut in services from local government. It doesn’t seem fair.

Unfortunately Initiative 864 continues the ongoing shift in our state of transferring the tax burden from the commercial property tax base to the residential homeowner like you.

Initiative 864’s tax cuts come at a cost of local services you depend on. These services cuts include fire and police protection, our criminal justice system, parks and recreation, roads, water, libraries and public utilities.

Some local levy districts like fire departments rely entirely on local property taxes. Over 80% of their budgets pay for firemen. It’s not “Chicken Little” to expect that the jobs of firemen and other public workers will be cut.

One unforeseen cost of these fire department cuts is that decreased fire protection will cut the property insurance rating in these areas, thereby increasing home insurance bills, hence diminishing the actual dollar savings I-864 proponents talk about.

Particularly hard hit will be Eastern Washington counties that heavily rely on property taxes for their funding since they do not have a high sales tax revenue base. Since many road funds are matched with state and Federal dollars a 25% cut for roads is actually much larger.

To sum up:

Initiative 864 will:

1 Give across the board 25% local property tax cut to everyone, including large corporations who have already received huge tax breaks.

2 Provide new huge tax breaks for businesses like Boeing and private utilities

3. Shift the remaining tax burden onto residential property

4. Cut $550 million in local services like police, fire, criminal justice and parks

Homestead Exemption will:

1. Exempt the first $ 30,000 of the primary residence of state homeowners.

2. Give low and middle income residential homeowners real tax relief

3. shift tax burden back to wealthy homeowners (over $500,000), commercial businesses and private utilities

4. be revenue neutral and not cut vital local services

The differences are clear cut. That is why we are working to enact a Property Tax Homestead Exemption. We are trying to get the Legislature to consider and enact one. We need your help! Please contact your own legislators and the legislative leadership to tell them to enact a Property Tax Homestead Exemption. We need real property tax relief for homeowners, not more handouts to the big corporations.

You can contact your legislators by logging onto your computer and going to the legislatures home page at www.lwg.wa.gov and clicking on ‘find out who represents you” You can also contact your legislator’s by calling 1-800-562-6000 and leaving a message. Urge them to provide real property tax relief by passing a Property Tax Homestead Exemption.

Steve Zemke

Taxpayers for Washington’s Future

PO Box 2397

Seattle, WA 98111

Homestead Exemption Now! Is a project of Taxpayers for Washington’s Future. Taxpayers for Washington’s Future, PO Box 2397, Seattle, WA 98101 and is registered with the PDC. Taxpayers for Washington’s Future does not support Initiative 864.

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Paid for by MajorityRules.org 2131 N 132nd ST, Seattle, WA 98133