A simple verification that takes minutes and prevents multimillion-dollar errors
Here are two tests I will run on every levy, every year, before I sign anything.
Test 1: Is any rate identical to last year's rate?
Test 2: Does the tax billed match the amount that was certified?
Here is what Test 1 shows in the county's own published levy-rate reports:
Identical to all ten decimal places, while property values changed. A rate that does not move is either a coincidence worth explaining or a number apparently unexamined.
This check would have flagged the error in moments — before a single bill went out.
Rates shown exactly as printed in Island County's published levy-rate reports, available on the county website.
Island County taxpayers were overcharged millions on the state school levy, as reported by the Whidbey News-Times on August 26. My position is straightforward: every dollar ought to go back to the people who paid it — including refund checks to those who have since sold their homes, and not credits on someone else's tax bill.
The above error is a preventable error, and prevention is the assessor's job.
The Taxpayer Protection Plan is my commitment to the quality controls that make sure it never happens again: independent verification of every levy before the tax roll is signed, confirmation with every taxing district, and a public report every year so you can check my work. Every commitment in the plan has a date attached and produces a public record.
Qualifications matter. Accuracy matters.
… and accountability matters.
Doug Stults for Island County Assessor — November 3rd.
Taxpayer Protection Plan
Version 1.0 — September 2026
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Part 1 — Levies (this document, released now)
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Part 2 — Exemptions & Current Use (developed in house with county records after election)
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Part 3 — State Reporting (developed in house with county records after election)
Prevention (controls before the roll is signed), detection (reconciliation and look-back), and transparency (publishing the results). Every commitment below sits in one of those layers and has a deadline.
PART 1 — LEVIES
First 30 days
1. Run the two-test exception report on the current roll.
Test 1: flag any levy whose applied rate matches the prior year’s at eight or more decimal places. Test 2: flag any levy where extended differs from certified by more than 0.01%. Run it on the roll as it stands the day I'm sworn in. Whatever it shows becomes the baseline, documented and dated.
2. Name the levy chain of custody.
One levy specialist, one trained backup, in writing. The person who keys certified amounts is never the person who verifies them. Certified amounts are keyed from the official source paper and never pulled from the software's prior year table.
3. Remove auto-population.
Work with the vendor to configure levy screens so no prior year rate or amount carries forward as a default. If the vendor can't or won't, the control is a signed worksheet attesting that each rate was computed fresh, and the vendor's answer gets logged.
4. Open the correction file.
Whatever state the correction is in on day one, DOR dispute resolved or not, establish the tracking: which parcels, which tax years, current owner vs. sold. Sold parcels get refund checks to the people who actually paid (RCW 84.69.090), not credits to strangers. Publish counts of parcels refunded, checks issued, and how many remaining.
First 90 days
5. District confirmation letters.
Every taxing district gets a one page statement before the roll is signed: you certified $X, we extended $Y at rate Z on $V of value. Response requested in ten days if that doesn't match your records.
6. Written determination from the Department of Revenue.
Standing office policy, in writing: no correction above a set threshold is acted on without a written determination from DOR first. The direct lesson of 2026: a unilateral multimillion-dollar correction without guidance exposes taxpayers to reversal.
7. Answer every Department of Revenue packet in writing, every year.
The state regularly sends the office materials for review. Each review will now receive a signed reconciliation response, filed, so no state packet ever sits unexamined.
First year
8. Three year look back.
Recompute every levy for the three prior years so anything found may still be legally fixable. Publish the calculated results.
9. Invite the DOR levy audit.
Request one early, publish the report and the office's response item by item.
10. Software regression test.
After any vendor update, re-run the prior year's certified inputs and confirm the system reproduces the certified outputs. Vendor tickets logged with dates for the office's and public’s protection.
11. Annual public levy report.
One page to the County Commissioners each year: every levy, certified versus extended, variances explained, corrections made. Same format every year so trends are visible and anyone can check our work.
The signature
The law requires the assessor to personally certify that the tax roll is correct. The standing rule that ties all of this together: nothing gets my signature until every levy has been independently recomputed and every exception cleared in writing. The certificate now becomes the checkpoint.