In light of the burgeoning push back and outright bans of hydraulic fracturing, a key factor in the so-called natural gas boom, it is hardly surprising that Jordan Cove Energy Partners doubt the longevity of the market. Despite all the sturm und drang about funding local schools and investing in waterfront “revitalization” as part of a CEP (Community Enhancement Plan), Jordan Cove wants the option to back out of paying community service fees in lieu of property taxes halfway through a long term rural property tax abatement in the event the market tanks and operations cease. According to The World, “…if Jordan Cove chooses to “do nothing” after seven years into the plan, its property tax exemption would not be renewed, halting community service fee payments from that point forward. In the first draft agreement, Jordan Cove would have been locked into those payments for the full 15 years of the enterprise zone property tax exemption.”
Theoretically, the company would revert back to paying regular property taxes so what is the benefit to Jordan Cove to back out of the CEP? Should supplies of natural gas run low, Jordan Cove could “mothball” the $7 billion plant at which point Oregon Department of Revenue will stop assessing property taxes. 
Oregon Resouces Corp (ORC), the chromium miners that promised to bring economic prosperity to Coos County has done the exact same thing. After receiving a five-year abatement worth approximately $2.5 million, ORC laid off forty-five workers stopping operations and Coos County is now an industrial storage lot for $65 million of equipment that generates no tax revenue.
Clearly, Jordan Cove has concerns about the economic viability and longevity of the project and is protecting its shareholders’ liability at the expense of Coos County taxpayers. The obvious question is, why should the public risk 400 streams and thousands of acres of productive forestland on an industry that even insiders worry won’t last even a decade?
There are many reasons why a manufacturer would build speakers in Asia or elsewhere. Start with labor at $3/day vs $15/hour. No direct route to I 5. No reliable and rapid rail. No commercial aircraft; runway is too short. Too many rules and regulations. Too heavily taxed. And so much more.
If I were MG, I would locate a large US company that has industrial offset obligations in a foreign country and cook up a deal. For placing her business there; we could get something here.
Ok people what type of jobs do you want to have in coos county ? Mary your speaker is made over sea’s assembled in the USA to avoid port tax most likely why not build it at home and not export jobs over seas
BRAVO!!!
Thanks to the fine reporting on this blog, and at The Oregonian recently, folks are starting to get educated, in SPITE of the lack of reporting facts and figures in the local rag. Thank you so much to everyone involved for accurately reporting the truth and history of these clowns who used to call themselves job creators, sadly, we all went down with their ship. They’re still stacking the boards in this county and in Salem, but sooner than later now, they will have to admit their dismal leadership took us backwards instead of forward.
An excellent question, and worth considering in view of the historical evidence that markets can turn on a dime, especially when they have been hyped-up by speculators.
Item #1: in 1979 the Port built the $2.5 million T-dock, expecting to cash in on the “booming” fish market. The market crashed as they started construction but they paid no attention; and the dock was never used. It’s still sitting there.
Item #2: Around that same time promoters were getting the Port all excited about a coal export terminal. Supposedly power plants in the Far East would be switching to coal because of high oil prices. Some people bought stock in the company, and the Port promised subsidies. But oil prices started sagging, and shipping coal from Coos Bay was never economical because of its distance from the mines, anyway.
Item #3: In 1986 the Port built the $1.5 million barge slip on the North Spit because the Alaskan oil boom required oil field equipment to be built in harbors in the lower states, and shipped from there to the North Slope. The slip was dug without any commitment by a steel fabricator, who was “waiting” for a contract that never came, mostly due to falling oil prices.
Item #4: In 1980 the Port, with borrowed money, built a fish waste processing in Charleston, supposedly again because of the booming fish market. The tenant went broke and left town. Same thing happened with a fish processing plant.
Item #5: in 1989/90 the Port, using money from the North Spit UR District that it controlled, spent millions on “water studies” to accommodate a big Japanese-owned pulp mill that was to be built on the North Spit. But the plan was a corporate scam. The company never intended to build in Coos Bay, and the pulp market went to pot besides. This, incidentally, is why most pulp mills in the North west have vanished since then.
Item#6: In 2005 we learned that an LNG IMPORT terminal was to be built at Jordan Cove, because the US was facing a gas shortage, with record domestic prices. Within a few years, as we know, that situation turned completely around.
There is more, but unless you, the reader, are part of the Port, the Chamber, B.S. Oregon or some similar den of dunces, you may get the idea.