Oregon’s property tax rates are constrained by measures enacted in 1990 and 1997 to $5 per $1,000 of valuation for education and $10.00 per $1,000 for all units of local government, including
counties, cities and special districts. A task force formed by the governor’s office to help counties prepare for the loss of federal timber payments recommended that the first recourse for is to exploit the full property tax capacity available. According to the 2009 task force report Coos County utilizes only 32% of its available tax revenue capacity.
The gap between county rates and the combined local government maximum of $10.00 per $1,000 reflects each county’s unused “tax capacity.” Such tax capacity is likely to be constrained by the effects of compression among jurisdictions and by limitations that apply to individual properties. But examining the difference between current property tax rates, including local options taxes, and the average of all rates in effect for local governments within each county provides useful measures of unused tax capacity.
Recently, Commissioner Bob Main has proudly proclaimed that raising property taxes in Coos County is not an option claiming that without jobs people would not be able to afford an increase. On the surface that sounds reasonable but the unemployed and those living on fixed incomes may already be paying the maximum amount allowed by law and therefore not actually see any increase on their tax bill. For example, a quick review of my tax bill shows that I am already paying the full $5 for education and actually paying in excess of $10 on all other local taxes and special levies and a quick poll of five other property owners in Coos County shows that they too are already taxed at the maximum rate. To check whether you are already being fully taxed simply divide the “General Government Total” on the right hand side of your tax bill by the “Total Assessed Value” to see how close you are to the $10 maximum.
Private interests control 66% of the county property which has an assessed value of $7.34 billion which could generate $73.4 million in taxes but not everyone is taxed equally in Coos County and the county is only generating about $24 million according to the report.
Main’s argument that county citizens couldn’t afford a property tax increase is probably specious and it is really the corporate interests like Bandon Dunes, Northwest Natural, Pacific Corp and Oregon Resources who would actually see any increase. Main also proudly announced that the county government has shrunk with less than half the number of employees a decade ago and yet most of us are paying the maximum tax while receiving reduced services thanks to the cut spending ideology that permeates the current commission.
At Wednesday’s Bay Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon the question was asked if the commission had actually investigated whether the public would prefer to pay a tax increase rather than turn over management of federal timber property to the Coquille Tribe? The short answer is “no”, the public was not consulted and Main actually laughed at the idea before saying he had “thought about it” before offering an elaborate discourse about times gone by. Papa Main thinks he knows best…
The options and recommendations presented in the Governor’s Task Force on Federal Forest Payments and County Services have been sitting, without benefit of public discussion or debate on Main’s desk for almost three years while more jobs affecting public services, public health and public safety have been shaved away and yet most of us are paying more than our fair share for those services.
Main ignores all these other options and sinks all our eggs into one basket . While Parry ignores all these options and flits around chasing carbon credits and water banking schemes. Great!
We don’t have much in the way of police protection, the fire department is volunteer, and we are billed separately for sewer and water service. Sidewalks are non-existent, and unpaved roads are nightmares. We can be sprayed with poison for free every year, though, unless we request an exemption.
City dwellers are taxed at a higher rate typically but when you consider roughly half the county population is in a city taxing district I believe that most individuals are taxed at or near capacity still holds true. Nevertheless, it would be worthy of public debate to work through all of those ins and outs
Our tax rate is quite a bit lower than yours. I came up with $5.62 per $1000 of assessed value on our house and $3.20 on the vacant lot next door. I wonder if it’s because we are not in any city limits?