Court Opinion

ID: 9588455
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:34:35.734355+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:00:58.885030
License: Public Domain

Neill, J.
(concurring) — I concur with the result reached by the majority. The challenged statute (Laws of 1971, Ex. Ses., ch. 288, § 8, RCW 84.48.085) is in harmony with Carkonen v. Williams, 76 Wn.2d 617, 458 P.2d 280 (1969), and is not inconsistent with my dissent in Dore v. Kinnear, 79 Wn.2d 755, 489 P.2d 898 (1971). Carkonen validated the 4-year cyclical revaluation of property as a reasonable means of achieving the constitutional mandate of a 50 per cent assessment ratio. In Dore, I disagreed with the majority of this court because I viewed the decision as a backward step, an obstruction to efforts at achieving intracounty tax equality among property owners. Given the practical necessity of cyclical, rather than instantaneous revaluation (see Carkonen v. Williams, supra), an inescapable conflict emerges between the obvious need to revalue some properties before others and the immediate complaints of. inequality from taxpayers whose parcels are most recently revalued. In this connection, as detailed in Dore, my position is that the cyclical revaluation process should not be negated in a given case, absent a clear showing that the program is not systematic or that its application has been intentionally discriminatory. Discrimination in this constitutional sense is not shown by the mere fact that some parcels have been revalued before others. Carkonen v. Williams, supra.
The provisions of RCW 84.48.085, whereby revaluations are progressively incorporated into the county’s indicated ratio, constitute a legislative formula to meet the dilemma *266posed by the above-noted clash of interests by softening the immediate impact of cyclical revaluation. To be consistent with our constitution and the criteria of Carkonen, the subject statute cannot be construed or employed to delay achievement of the constitutionally required ratio beyond the maximum term, the 4-year cycle. That is, the “rollback” formula’s operation must parallel the given 4-year (or less) revaluation cycle that is actually being pursued. As each cycle concludes, any differentials occasioned by this statutory “rollback” must be eradicated so that the constitutionally required ratio is achieved.
As thus construed, RCW 84.48.085 is a prudent, workable and valid legislative answer to the problem of achieving such interim equities as are possible without unduly obstructing progress toward the more complete tax equality that is attained by prompt fulfillment of the constitutional mandate.
Stafford, Wright, and Utter, JJ., concur.
Petition for rehearing denied April 24, 1972.