HomeMy WebLinkAboutWashington State AGO LetterC `r
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Bob Ferguson
ATTORNEY GENERAL OF WASMNGTON
Transportation & Public Construction Division
P.O. Box 40113 ■ Olympia, WA 98504-0113 • (360) 753-6126
April 6, 2023
Kittitas County Treasurer
Attn: Amy Cziske, Treasurer
205 West Fifth Avenue
Suite # 102
Ellensburg, WA 98926
RE: 2023 Kittitas County Property Tax Statements
Dear Treasurer Cziske:
I am writing in regard to the 2023 Kittitas County Property Tax Statements issued by your office
to the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) for the year of 2023,
requesting payment of Weed, Conservation, and Fire assessments for 2023, as well as weed
assessments for the years of 2017-2021. WSDOT paid the 2023 assessments on or around April
4, 2023, consistent with its statutory duties and its commitment to working with its local
government partners. However, as noted in my previous letter to your office dated January 27,
2021—as well as WSDOT's letters to your office dated May 7, 2020, December 9, 2020, and
April 9, 2021—the weed assessments for the years 2017-2021 were not authorized by statute at
the time they were assessed. Because these assessments lack legal authority, WSDOT cannot pay
them.
In the years 2017-21, your office levied the above referenced weed assessments under the
authority of Kittitas County Resolution 95-133, relying on former RCW 17.10.240 (1997).
Subsequently, in Kittitas County v. WSDOT, 13 Wn. App. 2d 79,461 P.3d 1218 (2020), the
Court of Appeals unanimously held in a published decision that the County could not levy weed
assessments against WSDOT, as these special assessments require express statutory authority,
which was absent from RCW 17.04 or RCW 17.10 as they existed at the time.
In 2021, the Legislature amended RCW 17.04 and 17.10 to authorize counties, for the first time,
to levy weed assessments on WSDOT and similar state agencies. See Substitute House Bill
(SHB) 1355 (2021). However, that bill did not purport to authorize weed assessments that
preexisted its effective date —as the weed assessments for the years 2017-21 do. Furthermore,
while the Court of Appeals' decision in Kittitas County v. WSDOT acknowledged the possibility
that state agencies could be required to pay a "tax" under former RCW 17.04.180 (1991), the
Court also recognized that the weed assessments levied by the County (and that the County
continues to attempt to collect from WSDOT) were not "taxes," but per -acre special assessments
that lacked statutory authority and were invalid. See Kittitas County, 13 Wn. App. 2d at 95
(holding that RCW 17.04.180 "supports [the] conclusion" that weed assessments are special
ATTORNEY GENERAL OF WASHINGTON
Amy Cziske
April 6, 2023
Page 2
assessments), 97 (holding that the County lacked express authority authorizing special
assessments against WSDOT.) The County did not appeal this holding, and the Legislature did
not overturn it as to assessments from before the effective date of SHB 1355.
Again, while WSDOT is committed to carrying out its statutory duties under SHB 1355, these
duties do not include paying weed assessments that predated that bill and that have been
invalidated by the courts. WSDOT cannot pay the weed assessments for the years of 2017
through 2021, and we respectfully request that you remove them from the assessment rolls.
Thank you and let me know if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
/s/Albert H. Wang
ALBERT H. WANG
Assistant Attorney General
(360) 586-3457
AHW/NC
cc: Yvette L. Lujan, Property Management & Acquisition Supervisor, WSDOT Real Estate
Services
Greg Zempel, Prosecuting Attorney, Kittitas County
Todd Davis, Kittitas County Noxious Weed Control Coordinator