Summary of WAC 458-12 (Rules) project plan
Many of the rules within WAC 458-12 are directed at the work of county assessors. We believe assessors have valuable insight regarding how these rules could be more clear and useful with revisions.
Washington State Association of County Assessors (WSACA) agreed to participate in this project by reviewing rules and providing feedback via four assessors that volunteered to represent the association.
The assessors’ feedback, together with feedback from the Department’s staff, will be used by the Department to prioritize WAC 458-12 rules for revision or repeal.
Many rules in WAC 458-12 contain original language dating from the 1960s. Other rules in the chapter have been updated in recent years, but the updates were generally made due to legislation. There are 27 rules in WAC 458-12 that will be reviewed as part of this project.
Project objectives
Through this project, we will:
- Provide assessors an opportunity to provide feedback prior to the Department beginning the formal rule making process. Assessors and other stakeholders continue to have opportunities to provide feedback during the actual rule making process.
- Provide the Department with useful feedback about clarity of the rules, cited references, use of the rules, and examples.
- Test tools for gathering and compiling feedback about rules.
- Share a summary of this project with WSACA at their conference in June 2020.
Project approach & timeline
A project kick-off meeting was held November 14 that included Property Tax, ITA, and the four assessor team members.
Each month the Department (via Project Lead) will send the four project assessors a new set of 5-9 rules to review with instructions to return feedback to the Department by a due date. There are four sets of rules that will be reviewed between November 2019 and March 2020.
The project assessors decided that each would solicit and report feedback for their designated region.
Jim Ruud - NE District
Mary Engle - SE District
Linda Hjelle - Puget Sound District
John Wilson - Western District
Some questions to consider while reviewing a rule.
- Is the rule clear?
- Is the older rule applicable for assessment work today?
- Are there references that should be updated or additional citations that should be added?
- If there is an example, is it useful?
- Are you aware of other information that may conflict with the rule?
- Share any other specifics that would be useful to improve the clarity of the rule.
The project assessors will contact assessors in their district to ask for feedback by a due date. Each of the four project assessors will send feedback from their district on to the Department (Cindy Boswell & Tim Graham).
The project team will meet in January to check-in on how the process is working and share feedback on Rule Set 1. Additional check-in meetings will be scheduled as needed.
The Department will use feedback to identify and prioritize WAC 458-12 rules for revision or repeal after all feedback have been gathered and reviewed.