The other complicated thing about property tax is our astronomical housing valuations. The average house price in king county just crossed over 1million dollars. 0.8% of 1 million is still $8,000.
On top of that the WA state legislature, in its perennial pastime of “screw Seattle” has decreed that property tax gross receipts cannot increase by more than 1% per year - effectively cutting the county budget every year regardless of inflation or population growth. So we are constantly passing supplemental levies to restore funding.