MOSES LAKE — While cities are allowed by state law to increase property taxes by one percent each year without a vote, Moses Lake City Council members opted not to raise that tax in 2027. What residents will pay in property taxes in 2027 was the subject of a discussion at Tuesday's council meeting, but Finance Director Sheila Danielson said city officials don't really know the answer to that question yet. 

Calculating taxes relies on information about property values that comes from the Grant County Assessor's Office, and Danielson said the city doesn't have all those numbers yet. 

"The basic information that's needed for coming up with what we're going to levy is the value of parcels and the taxing district," Danielson said.  

Taxing districts, the city being one, have a specific amount of money they can request, she said.  

"We get those values, obviously, from Grant County. They are responsible for our jurisdiction, to value or properties and get us that information. Once we have those two pieces of basic information, we can calculate the levy rate," she said.  

The tax rate multiplied by the property values is the amount of tax owed by each property owner, she said. 

"We don't have all of the information in order to actually calculate what the rate will be for 2027," she said. "We're still waiting on our total assessed values and our new construction values, which make up a pretty large component of the calculation." 

That information is crucial, she said. 

"It's really difficult right now to say what a homeowner will pay, on a rate that we don't know, because we have too many unknowns right now," she said. "Based on my conversations with them, I don't anticipate we'll have that by the time we adopt (a 2027) budget, and we likely won't get it until December." 

The delay affects all cities and taxing districts in Grant County, she said.  

That prompted a question from council member Victor Lombardi. 

"What happens if it's not (received) by the end of the year?" he said. "What is the procedure involved?" 

Danielson said she didn't know, but that the assessor's office said it would be ready before year's end. 

"I can't guarantee that we'll get it by the end of the year," Danielson said.  

There's also a limit on the amount of property taxes that all taxing districts – the city, a school district, a hospital district and others – can collect from voters.  

"There's a priority of who can levy and then who gets reduced," she said. "The city actually is a primary taxing district, as well as schools, but if it's (something) like a library, they become a secondary taxing district. If we were to exceed that (taxing) limit, they would have to scale back their property tax levy amount in order to stay within the aggregate limit." 

Because information for 2026 wasn't available, Daniels used the information from 2025 to demonstrate the process.  

In 2025, the assessed value for Moses Lake was about $4.1 billion, which included about $159.2 million in new construction. Danielson said new construction slowed down in 2026 – from a very busy 2025 – and estimated the new construction would be about $88.2 million in 2026.  

She estimated the city could collect a maximum of about $10.8 million, depending on the actual assessed value. 

    Property assessment information from the Grant County Assessor has been delayed, according to Moses Lake city officials, making it more difficult to calculate 2027 property tax rates for city residents and business owners.