Historical Proportional Obligation Factor (POF) calculator for an example property in the Lynden SD tax area

Input (Enter Your Data)

Output (Results)

POF results for the example property

Notes

This interactive calculator was created by the author independently from and not associated with the school district.

POF: The Proportional Obligation Factor for any given year equals the assessed value (AV) of the example property divided by the Total AV of the properties within the district's tax area.

AV: AV is the assessed value of a property as assessed by the county assessor's office. The AV of a property is supposed to be the market value at the time of the assessment. AVs are always a year behind. For example, the county assessor's office during the summer of 2024 is assessing properties to assign AVs to use in the 2025 tax year.

Total AV: Total AV is the total assessed value of all private properties within the school district's tax area.

Equations

Example Property's POF For The Year = {Example Property's AV For The Year} / {Total AV For The Year}

Effective (compounded) annual POF change 2021 to 2024 = (({Example Property's POF 2024} / {Example Property's POF 2021} ** (1/3)) - 1)

Data Sources

The county assessor's annual tax reports and the DOR's (Department of Revenue's) tax reports

Examples

Link to the Whatcom County Assessor’s Office parcel lookup page:

https://property.whatcomcounty.us/

The data in the next table are from actual properties in the Lynden SD tax area. Addresses are not shown for privacy reasons. Some POFs for some properties will be positive and some will be negative. But in general an annual POF change of 0% will give conservative results in the calculators on this website. School districts (and other taxing districts) should be conservative with other people’s money. Customers (taxpayers/voters) of the calculators can choose to enter different annual POF change parameters as they see fit for their circumstances.

Lynden SD POF examples cost analysis