In January 2024, my phone went crazy with Farm Bureau members calling me.
I was Lewis County Farm Bureau (LCFB) president at that time. They were very upset about a letter they had received from the Lewis County Assessor’s Office. A few took pictures of their letter and texted or emailed it to me.
The letter was signed by Patrick Woody, a commercial and industrial appraiser, and asked farmers for a list of information, including income, to assess the value of their farms. Some of the information was hard to track or document. Some was redundant information they already had to report to another agency, and some was very “personally identifiable information.”
People were enraged (and scared) to say the least. Farmers and ranchers tend to be the type who say “leave me alone and let me do my job” and tend to be a little leery of “governmental overreach.” The old “I am from the government and I am here to help” phrase rings loudly and clearly in their ears and minds.
So, I spent a lot of time on the phone calming fears and trying to put out fires. I contacted the Washington Farm Bureau office and, since it was a county issue, they offered a little assistance, but basically said it is a county issue, so deal with it. The Farm Bureau is a grassroots organization.
I contacted all three of our county commissioners and was told that the assessor is elected by the people and they have no control over the office — the assessor “answers to the people.” I did meet with Commissioner Scott Brummer personally and got some additional information to try to understand what was happening. I also contacted all six senators and representatives for the 19th and 20th legislative districts, as Lewis County is in both. I personally met a couple of times with Rep. Ed Orcutt, and he was able to help clarify the position of Washington state and the Department of Revenue.
My “assessor issue binder” kept growing as I kept notes on meetings, phone calls and emails, looked at tax values on various parcels, and researched state laws, the Open Space Taxation Act, personal property taxes, International Association of Assessing Officers — the documentation kept piling up.
I met with Lewis County Assessor Ross Nielson. I had made the appointment with him and had asked if our LCFB’s service coordinator to Washington Farm Bureau could attend with me, as he had personal, previous experience working with the county assessor in his home county. I thought he might be able to shed some light on how we (farmers and ranchers) and the county assessor’s office could work together to find a good solution and resolve the issue.
I was surprised when we walked in for the appointment to find we were meeting in a conference room with five people. My immediate reaction: “Should I have brought an attorney along?” And then, “Don’t try to intimidate me.”
I guess I have a little too much of my dad and that independent farmer attitude in me. Plus, I had previous personal dealings with a couple different county offices where they tried to pull that game plan on me. Ticks me off.
I walked away from that meeting a little frustrated and a little hopeful. It scared me when one of the appraisers said the best use of the land (designated agricultural ground is taxed on current use, not best use value) would be to cut it up into small farmettes and home sites. I don’t think so.
We are losing farms at an alarming rate — they need to be encouraged and supported, not destroyed at an even faster rate for the sake of gaining higher property values to generate tax money for the county.
I felt we did make some progress. The two big things for me being, No. 1, Mr. Nielson agreed to let LCFB put together a committee to meet with him, advise him about agriculture (he admitted to knowing very little) and work together toward a solution. And, No. 2, he admitted that the letter sent from his office was poorly done and agreed to send a new letter to those same people. They had sent about 50 letters to people they thought were dairymen and 30 poultry growers.
The list was very inaccurate.
Next, Mr. Nielson attended a LCFB board meeting to speak to our membership, and he agreed to meet again with an even larger group of our membership if we felt it would be helpful. The LCFB board appointed a committee, and we started monthly meetings with Mr. Nielson and some of his staff.
We were making good progress. We got the “list of demands” reduced and some promise of confidential handling of “personal identifiable information.” We were to the point of starting to identify the different types of farms and how their values differ. It was agreed that farmers and ranchers could help in determining the value of their buildings and that farmers could help the county develop a “model” of how to value various types of farms.
That is where things stopped.
It has been about a year now with no additional meetings, and no further progress. I got frustrated, so I called Mr. Nielson and asked if I could go in to speak with him. Yesterday, I did just that.
Being me, I had to start the meeting by telling him I had a trust issue with him, as I felt he had been less than honest in a couple of our previous meetings, and I have trouble trusting someone after that. I believe in being honest and upfront, so I wanted to clear the air so we each knew where we stood. We discussed it and continued my “interview” with him so that I could write this article. I feel we have come to a good working relationship.
Mr. Nielson and I went through my property and looked at another (all public information available on the Lewis County website) belonging to a family member. We corrected some information on mine and found some information on the other that I feel needs to be updated (but not my place to do). What he is trying to do (and admits it was sort of gone at in the wrong way — hindsight is such a great thing) is get agricultural properties assessed properly and fairly.
Currently, many are being assessed as residential. What that means to the farmer is that as neighboring properties sell, and home values go up, the value on all of their barns goes up. The reality is those barns are aging and becoming less valuable — even unusable in some cases. The value should be going down.
Bottom line, my “call to action” for farmers and ranchers in Lewis County: at a bare minimum, let the assessor’s office know you are a farm. I encourage the following steps:
No. 1: Go on the Lewis County Parcels website and review your information — look specifically at depreciation and buildings and improvements.
No. 2: Check to be sure your property has a use code (83 for agriculture, 88 for forestry) because if it doesn’t, you are not “in program,” not taxed as Open Space Agriculture, but rather at the higher residential rate.
No. 3: Go to the assessor’s office or call and make an appointment to have one of them come to your farm, and get information corrected — share what information you want to.
This has gotten longer than I had hoped. I could have gone into being contacted by the Economic Alliance of Lewis County and by Rob McKenna, and my discussions with them due to my involvement with this issue. I could talk about “trending” and Marshall and Swift when it comes to how properties are assessed. There is much more to this story. Maybe another article, if anyone is interested.
Get in touch with me (if you are worried about confidentiality and opening a can of worms by approaching the county) or Mr. Nielson’s office if you have questions and concerns. I want to end with the following statement by Mr. Nielson. “My goal is to value farms as farms, not as anything else. I don’t want someone’s farm valued like a house with a view.”
I think he is trying to do what is right — be fair to all involved. I thank him for that.
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Maureen Harkcom grew up on a Lewis County dairy and operated a beef and native hay operation and developed an equine competition facility. She is a past president of Lewis County Farm Bureau and a current member of Washington Farm Bureau Board of Directors. She can be reached by email at maureen.harkcom@gmail.com.
