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This Renton School District chart is deceptive. It shows taxes dropping on a home “valued in 2025 at $750,000.” But the value of the unrealistic house in this chart is $750,000 every year (not just 2025). Real Renton houses doubled in value during these ten years and had major increases in their taxes.
Renton School District is preparing to ask voters to renew operating and technology levies on the November ballot. While I support schools, I’m alarmed (again) by the misleading and unethical way District leaders are making the case for the money.
Their current website has a chart for an “Example home valued in 2025 at $750,000,” and shows the taxes dropping from $4,012 in 2016 to an expected $2,542 in 2026. That sounds great, except it is completely wrong.
A typical home worth $750,000 in 2025 would have been valued at about half that in 2016, or approximately $375,000. Hence the Renton School District local taxes would have been $2006, not $4012 back then.
So 2026 taxes on an “Example home valued in 2025 at $750,000” have risen about 25% over the time period, NOT dropped by 37% as errantly shown.
This chart has earned an “F” in both mathematics AND in ethics.
Typical tax assessment for a home in Renton Highlands that has had no significant remodeling
The actual cost of the bond is $1.06 per thousand for the Operations Levy, and $0.72 for the Capital Levy, for a total of $1.78 per thousand.
On a $750,000 home, this equates to $1,335 per year. This is the actual cost of the measure on the November ballot. If voters don’t approve the measure, the typical homeowner would see their taxes drop by $1,335, but significant cuts would need to be made in Renton School Programs.
The Renton School Board should be showing us the details of how they will wisely use the extra $1,335 per year from each home to improve student success, not lying to us that voting “yes” will lower our taxes. The following is another screenshot from the District’s website:
This screenshot from the District’s web page stresses the false claim that taxpayers are saving money, but taxpayers are actually paying more than ever due to higher property valuations.
This is not the first time they have offered this faulty math; I’ve covered the topic in more detail here.
These are the same people driving the education of our future leaders and getting raises while cutting funds for what schools need. No wonder only 74% of students are successful in all subjects. (this number was part of a graphic shown at a school board meeting)