Let's Raise your Property Tax

by Pete Belcastro.

That’s the idea behind the latest proposal from the League of Oregon Cities.  This time under the guise of compression, the League is going around Oregon speaking to Rotary clubs and other groups to convince them that Real Market Value and Assessed Value need to be married in a reversal of Oregon’s voter mandated reforms.
Compression means that local governments are being squeezed when other local governments raise property taxes within the voter approved limits.  When this happens the pool of available funds for other governments is reduced.  Thus Compression sets in.  That is way Oregon has formed many separate tax districts to go outside the voter mandates.
Even with compression, why can’t local governments get along with an annual 3% rise in taxes despite compression?
The solution says the League of Oregon Cities is to bring assessed value in line with real market value when a property sells.  For example,  at my house in Ashland, I am assessed at $286,000.  If I sell my house for $400,000 then the property tax would be assessed at the $400,000 level and the property taxes for the buyer would rise from $4,100 to $6,200.  That would have an adverse affect on real estate sales in Oregon, it would have to be disclosed what the new property tax would be during the sale of a property.
Property is easy to tax but the League of Oregon Cities won’t get their way here.  No legislator would dare approve this idea, and certainly the voters of Oregon will not support a blatant effort to grab easy money for local governments at the expense of buyers and property owners.  No way, no how.

The Oregon Association of Realtors are on the case too.   Note to local governments, live within your means, no new taxes on property; spend less, compression if your faults.