Last evening, I attended a meeting along with commissioner elect, Bob Main. Bob gave us a little primer on enterprise zones and urban renewal districts and it may be hard to quantify any real benefit to the community that pays taxes to support these areas. Apparently, when a business or venture opens in an enterprise zone it is exempt from taxes for a fixed period, like three years. Then, if I have this correctly, when it does pay taxes, those taxes are used only within the urban renewal district and do not benefit schools, libraries, community services, etc…
In Coquille, at least, with so many vacancies, it is hard to appreciate how establishing an enterprise zone and renewal district has really helped the city. Perhaps, city manager O’Connor can demonstrate statistically, how Coquille is improved by enterprise zones.
