I wanted to rave about the generosity of a Kirkland business to a student in my first-grade class.

I am a teacher at Woodmoor Elementary in Bothell and I have a child in my class with leukemia. He loves trains, so I contacted Stacie at Eastside Trains in downtown Kirkland to see if they knew of anyone who would be interested in visiting the little boy in the hospital and chatting about trains. As we e-mailed back and forth, I shared with Stacie that it was the boy’s birthday on March 8. She responded by putting together a fabulous basket of train items that I was able to deliver to my student for his birthday. It made his day and mine, too!!!! What a wonderful, thoughtful gift.

Susan Hadreas

Bringing it home:

the scoop on 1039

Initiative 1039, Save your home: real not imagined property-tax values, is heading toward the November ballot and here’s what it will do for all of us.

Goal #1: Establish the sales price as the true value. To phase this in, property owned as of Jan. 1, 2009, will use the current assessed value as the established basis. Property bought after Jan. 1, 2009, will use the sales price as the established tax basis.

Goal #2: Limit the annual assessment increase to 1 percent resulting in a predictable property tax. Under the current system, the assessor decides what is “market value” and the assessed value may double or triple on any given year. The owner pays taxes on money s/he has never received. This imagined value is called “unrealized capital gain” and not even the IRS has the nerve to do this. Plus, it’s paid year after year!

Goal #3: Lower inflated assessments by providing a way to challenge the basis in a fair way, not relying on an arbitrary decision by an assessor.

Goal #4: Be revenue neutral for all taxing districts and preserve the levies and bonds.

Because property sells every 5-7 years, resetting the tax base at the time of sale will continually adjust the taxable values to the current economy. Everyone, those who stay and those who buy, will be able to budget for their property taxes.

The premise of this initiative is people buy what they can afford, are entitled to own what they buy, pay tax on what they bought and not be forced to sell because their neighbors have a more expensive home.

Learn more at www.realnotimagined.com and become part of the solution for this problem.

Courtney Cox, Washington Voters for Fair Property Tax Committee