La Conner area residents are no strangers to the notion of a tax shift.

Many homeowners have seen punishing increases in their property tax bills in the aftermath of tribal lawyer and state bureaucrat rule-crafting following the so-called Great Wolf Lodge federal appellate court decision.

Now property owners in the rest of the state could start to feel the same kind of tax sting.

An October ruling by the state Supreme Court, the “Hirst Decision” on a case originating in Whatcom County essentially requires the state’s 39 counties to prove water pumped from wells does not affect river flows befo...