the official blog of the evergreen freedom foundation

Crosscut: All the News that's Fit to Print, Even If It's Wrong

Posted by Brett Davis - July 23, 2010

Earlier this week, I blogged about a Crosscut piece that describes Initiative 1098 as cutting property taxes by 20 percent, when in fact I-1098 cuts only the state’s portion of property taxes by 20 percent. That’s an important distinction, because a 20 percent reduction of the state’s portion of the property tax is much less than a one-fifth reduction of your overall property tax bill.
 
I would have thought Crosscut would have been eager to provide a correction or clarification. Apparently, I was wrong. I sent an e-mail to the author of the piece, and got no response. I also sent an e-mail to David Brewster, Crosscut editor/publisher. You can read the text of the e-mail below:
 

Dear Mr. Brewster,

 

On 19 July you published an article by Knute Berger, “Should Seattle have an income tax?” This article contains the statement that Initiative 1098, the high-earner income tax, would “cut property taxes by 20 percent.”

 

In fact, Part III, Section 301 of I-1098 states, “Beginning in 2012, the state property tax levy is reduced by twenty percent of the levy amount that would otherwise be allowed under this chapter without regard to this section.” According to the Department of Revenue’s Property Tax Levy Rates chart from 2009, the state portion of the property tax makes up only 21 percent of the total property tax bill on average. In other words, 20 percent of 21 percent is slightly more than 4 percent. That’s a far cry from the 20 percent property tax cut mentioned in Mr. Berger’s article—a figure still cited in the story as I write this e-mail. (I sent Mr. Berger an e-mail informing him of the error.)

 

I believe you owe it to your readers to make a correction/clarification. After all, you wouldn’t want to mislead your readers into thinking I-1098 will, if approved, cut people’s overall property tax bill by 20 percent, would you?

 

Brett Davis

Economic Policy Analyst

Evergreen Freedom Foundation
 
The response: zilch.
 
In addition, I posted a similarly-worded response in the Comments section of the article.
 

As I write this blog, the online article still states I-1098 would “cut property taxes by 20 percent.” Crosscut readers deserve better than to have the news organization run an article with misleading information and then fail to make a correction or clarification. Honesty, as it turns out, really is the best policy.

Thoughts?   Add Comment -

my name is Ben said on Aug 02 2010 at 9:46pm
Brett,

Did you ever hear back? Did you try again?

Ben.