King County voters will elect one of two political newcomers as their next assessor this November. First-time candidate Dominique Scarimbolo, a business owner from Covington, is running against Rob Foxcurran, an appraiser who works for the City of Seattle. Foxcurran received 47% of the August primary vote, and Scarimbolo came in second with 19%.
The winner will succeed John Wilson, who did not run for reelection after his ex-fiancée alleged that he had stalked her. Those allegations led the King County Council to officially call for his resignation, though criminal charges were later dropped. In September, the Seattle Times reported that the King County Office of the Ombuds found Wilson had violated the county's ethics codes numerous times.
Both Foxcurran and Scarimbolo agree the assessor’s office has been damaged under Wilson’s leadership. While they both say repair is needed, they offer contrasting backgrounds and perspectives on how they would manage the office responsible for annual valuations of all properties in King County.
Washington's property tax cap
A key issue in the race is the state constitution's annual 1% property tax limit, approved by voters 25 years ago. Foxcurran said he would lobby to amend the tax limit; he said the restriction prevents local governments from raising sufficient funds for basic necessities such as roads, schools, and fire and emergency services.
“The 1% cap does not allow for local governments to fund those properly, inevitably leading to cuts or regularly having to pass levies, which does not feel like responsible governance,” he said.
Scarimbolo said the current limit should stay: “The cap is a good thing. It doesn’t need to be increased. ”
Rob Foxcurran
Foxcurran is an appraiser by trade. Over the last four years he has performed valuations of publicly owned properties for the City of Seattle. Prior to working in government, Foxcurran was an appraiser in the private sector, which included work with the commercial real estate giant CBRE. He is a member of the King County Board of Appeals and Equalization, where property tax disputes are heard.
That experience as an appraiser, he said, will help restore public confidence in the county assessor’s office after the turmoil of the Wilson years. “What I bring to the table is a degree of professionalism and knowledge that, frankly, has been completely absent from this department for 20-plus years.”
He praised the current assessor’s office staff for doing an “excellent job” in tough circumstances.
According to campaign materials, Foxcurran is a fifth-generation Seattleite. After attending Roosevelt High School he graduated from the University of Washington, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in history. He lives with his wife and their young daughter in the Beacon Hill neighborhood. He called his politics “progressive” and said his view “pairs with the majority of voters in the county.”
Foxcurran said a top priority for him is to lobby the state to create a “universal homestead exemption” that can offer a reduced tax burden for property owners who reside on their land. The exemption is law in 28 states. Foxcurran said it is an important tool to address housing affordability because “it helps shift that balance away from residential properties and generally more toward large scale, more valuable or commercial properties, making it fair for lower income and middle income families.”
Dominique Scarimbolo
Dominique Scarimbolo lives on the property where she spent her youth, in unincorporated southeast King County, near the city of Covington. Scarimbolo and her brother own a brewery there called The Four Horsemen, which they started in 2014.
Three years after opening, they found themselves battling zoning and licensing issues with both the county and the state. She said those struggles motivated her to run for assessor and reform the culture of the office.
“They are not good at customer service in any manner. It is a very adversarial relationship between the taxpayers and the assessor's office,” Scarimbolo said, adding that she would conduct an audit of its procedures. “The system, I know from all the research that I've done, does not produce uniform results, and that needs to be investigated.”
Scarimbolo said property owners need more information on their annual appraisal. “People should be able to get a full breakdown of their parcel, knowing exactly how it was calculated,” she said. “You can’t challenge something that you don’t understand even how they got that information.”
Amid her family business appeals, Scarimbolo got involved with the Citizen’s Alliance for Property Rights, and is president of the King County chapter. Her campaign website has a guide about taxes in Washington state. She noted her Washington State University bachelor’s degree in criminal justice inspired her to investigate tax systems. Scarimbolo challenged the label of “anti-tax” candidate.
Instead, she thinks "we need to be fiscally responsible with the taxes that we generate, and we're not."
