Who pays? The answer is the American taxpayer – watch this NY Times video published in May 2007. Local media seemed to miss this then but that may be changing now thanks to renewed interest in the use of taxpayer money locally sparked by talk of lengthening the runway at the airport to accommodate bigger jets.
Meanwhile The Oregonian’s Steve Duin appears to have scooped local media on the topic of tax inequity
And Bandon Dunes, which benefits from enterprise-zone tax breaks? An eye-popping tax rate of 0.29 percent on 3,600 seaside acres with a real market value of $179 million.
The resort, Johnston argues, should be paying four times the $519,000 in property taxes levied in 2009: “That’s money that isn’t available to fund schools, to educate children, to pay for police and libraries.”
Is that the price we pay for a “healthy” local economy?
“The wealthiest among us,” notes Chuck Sheketoff at the Oregon Center for Public Policy, “contribute the least share of their income to state and local taxes.”
More information is available in David Cay Johnston’s, Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves At Government Expense (and stick you with the bill) even available on Kindle.
Does anyone know if the new Old MacDonald course scheduled to open this June was built on the land auctioned by the County last year? Probably not as it would take longer than a year to develop a course I’m guessing.
Currently, I am reading Silent Theft- The Private Plunder of our Common Wealth by David Bollier. The first thing that came to mind was the beachfront property the county auctioned off last year. Am I right, did the Dunes buy some of it? Will check around to find out who bought it.
Chapter 6 of Bollier’s book talks about natural resources including mineral rights and begins with a quote from President Harry S Truman when inaugurating the Everglades National Park in 1948 –
We have to remain constantly vigilant to prevent raids by those who would selfishly exploit our common heritage for their private gain. Such raids on our natural resources are not examples of enterprise and initiative. They are attempts to take from all the people for the benefit of a few.
Amen to that
Hey Fred, nice to have you here. As you can guess I have a real soft spot for Marines and hope you have found inner peace after all your sacrifice. My son will be glad to chat with some time, he has the highest regard for corpsmen, especially the blue/green kind. I hope you will have a chat to meet.
Semper Fi
Semper Fi. I always enjoy visiting this site. I admire and respect the support that you openly give to your son. I understand. I spent Gulf War number 1 in Tel Aviv and the Negev. I am a former Navy / USMC corpseman (as Mr. President recently labeled us). I am from another war long ago when ptsd was considered casue to send you packing to Oak Knoll, the pacific fleet hospital, and ward 51C.
Best wishes in your quest for answers. I look forward to reading same.
Kevin says he was not on the board when the zone expansion benefiting Bandon Dunes occurred. Nikki sent me a useful response about the expansion “Mary – The Coquille Valley Enterprise Zone now consists of the cities of Bandon, Coquille, Myrtle Point and the Ports of Coquille and Bandon and Coos County. It started out in the beginning with only Coquille, Myrtle Point and Coos County. CCD provides management of the zone for us but they are not a sponsor. In 2002 we did a boundary adjustment to add in any areas between Coquille and Myrtle Point that were either zoned industrial or in the opinion of the County Surveyor might be suitable for future development. Also it was during 2002 that the City of Bandon became a sponsor. Our boundary adjustment included some properties within the city limits of Bandon and also included some of the lands near the Bandon airport that has since become home to Hardin Optical. In 2004 another boundary amendment was completed that added the Bandon Dunes property. You asked who made the request and if I remember correctly the request came from the Oregon Economic Development Department initially. In 2008 an Enterprise Zone reauthorization was done that did not change the boundary but it did add the Ports of Bandon and Coquille River as new sponsors. I think the state changed the law shortly before that giving the Ports the authority to be included if they wanted to be included. When you are starting an enterprise zone or amending the boundary of the enterprise zone all of the taxing districts that fall within the zone must be notified and have a chance to comment on either the creation or on the expansion. Once that has taken place the new boundary must also be approved by the governing bodies of each of the sponsors. I think I covered all your questions, let me know if I didn’t. Nikki”
I asked Nikki what motivated the expansion to include the Dunes but have not received an answer. Please write and ask her why.
My understanding is while Stufflebutt and Wittless were actually on the BOC, AND on the board of the Coquille Enterprise Zone group, they were the ones who initiated the tax breaks for Bandon Dunes well after it was known Bandon Dunes was here and would continue to build. Why the heck would public servants be throwing tax breaks to the most successful business in this county, when the county was entitled to tax dollars?
I’m sorry, this makes no sense to me whatsoever.
Let’s give them some time and see if they maybe are doing some research into the matter before reporting on it… further, let’s call and write them and demand they do some reporting on it. Quoting from Johnston’s comment at Duin’s blog linked above “In a competitive market businesses cannot, as some posters here seem to believe, pass on taxes to customers. If they can and do it is evidence of market rigging. Rather, property taxes generally reduce the returns to owners, just as withheld taxes reduce the returns from labor.
Posters here who note that not all land is subject to the same taxing jurisdictions are right. That data was not in the Coos County Assessor’s report. From Rochester, NY, I cannot access it. But people who live in Coos County can get the data and they can ask for a fuller explanation. Because of my analysis they have a better idea of what questions to ask I hope that they use it as the starting point to ask many questions.”
If a site is outside a taxing district that collects for schools, they may be assessed less tax, unfortunately to the detriment of our impoverished local schools. But the main point Johnston makes is that already successful businesses ought not be offered corporate welfare in the form or write offs and subsidies ESPECIALLY in an area that continues with 15% unemployment even since the Dunes setup its resort here.
I agree about Keiser, but this is not a popularity contest is it?
WTH?
Okay, it’s up to the citizens of this county to educate ourselves through blogs such as this to find out what is REALLY going on in this dam county !! The World refuses to acknowledge any of these issues. I am NOT against this strip mine per se. I am AGAINST the BOC not spending the time or money to do a complete inventory/analysis of this project. It is simply unbelievable to me that the only local paper in Coos Bay won’t make th4e slightest attempt to report the news.
Somebody must have told Clark he looks good in Pom Poms. That seems to be all he’s doing with both ORC and LNG, and pipelines, and all the rest of the Welfare For The Rich, and to hell with the truth.
That is the shame of all this.
Keiser doesn’t appear to be a terrible person by any stretch of the imagination. Still, if the Dunes paid the $2M per year if they were taxed at the same rate as the rest of us… and if he were situated in a taxing district that covered schools, local teachers and schools might get paid what its worth to educate our kids.
Taken from a blog about golfing at Bandon Dunes.
This is what some report about golfing Bandon Dunes, and we desperate po folks:
If you’re there for a few days, however, you may want to venture out of the enclave. We did so one night, eating at a charmingly small Italian restaurant in the town of Bandon called Alloro. We heard there are a couple other decent options in the town as well. We wouldn’t recommend driving all the way up to Coos Bay/North Bend, unless you have a craving for gambling that might be satisfied by the Indian casino up that way.
Getting around the resort is easy with a shuttle system that is frequent and reliable. The staff is quite friendly. Evidently the area was quite economically depressed before the resort was built, so many of the workers there are thankful for their jobs. We wish there was room for a practice area/range by each golf course, but there’s not, so instead there is one massive practice facility adjacent to Pacific Dunes. It’s not far to go, but when your tee time is only 20 minutes away it is a bit inconvenient.