The department of revenue shall have power to direct and to order any county board of equalization to raise or lower the valuation of any taxable property, or to add any property to the assessment list, or to perform or complete any other duty required by statute. The department of revenue may require any such board of equalization to reconvene after its adjournment for the purpose of performing any order or requirement made by the department of revenue and may make such orders as it shall determine to be just and necessary. The department may require any county board of equalization to reconvene at any time for the purpose of performing or completing any duty or taking any action it might lawfully have performed or taken at any of its previous meetings. No board may be reconvened later than three years after the date of adjournment of its regularly convened session. If such board of equalization shall fail or refuse forthwith to comply with any such order or requirement of the department of revenue, the department of revenue shall have power to take any other appropriate action, or to make such correction or change in the assessment list, and such corrections and changes shall be a part of the record of the proceedings of the said board of equalization: PROVIDED, That in all cases where the department of revenue shall raise the valuation of any property or add property to the assessment list, it shall give notice either for the same time and in the same manner as is now required in like cases of county boards of equalization, or if it shall deem such method of giving notice impracticable it shall give notice by publication thereof in a newspaper of general circulation within the county in which the property affected is situated once each week for two consecutive weeks, and the department of revenue shall not proceed to raise such valuation or add such property to the assessment list until a period of five days shall have elapsed subsequent to the date of the last publication of such notice: PROVIDED FURTHER, That appeals to the board of tax appeals by any taxpayer or taxing unit concerning any action of the county board of equalization shall not raise the valuation of the property to an amount greater than the larger of either the valuation of the property by the county assessor or the valuation of the property assigned by the county board of equalization. Such notice shall give the legal description of each tract of land involved, or a general description in case of personal property; the tax record-owner thereof; the assessed value thereof determined by the county board of equalization in case the property is on the assessment roll; and the assessed value thereof as determined by the department of revenue and shall state that the department of revenue proposes to increase the assessed valuation of such property to the amount stated and to add such property to the assessment list at the assessed valuation stated. The necessary expense incurred by the department of revenue in making such reassessment and/or adding such property to the assessment list shall be borne by the county or township in which the property as reassessed and/or so added to the assessment list is situated and shall be paid out of the proper funds of such county upon the order of the department of revenue.

Construction—Severability—1975 1st ex.s. c 278: See notes following RCW 11.08.160.