Page 14 Vct J# CCMMLJNffV le e r - September 26, 2012
m City
From page 1
the League of Oregon Cities at the
forum.
Officials introduced five pro-
posals drafted by the league, which
provides lobbying services and
training for 242 city governments
throughout the state.
Local Control Amendment
- Introduced by Sweet Home City
Councilman Scott McKee, this pro-
" posed constitutional amendment
vould allow local communities to
vote on option levies outside of
compression and would lengthen
the maximum duration of a levy
from five to 10 years.
McKee noted that Sweet
Home has been especially hard hit
by compression and its low per-
manent tax rate. He said that Linn
County's local option levy and fall-
ing property values in Sweet Home
have left the city with losses of
$730,000 - "nearly a third of what
the levy was supposed to collect.
"We've had to eliminate four
positions and reduce library servic-
es," he said. "We've also seen an
increase in public safety employees
seeking employment elsewhere,
due to job security concerns."
Sprenger and Girod cautioned
that eliminating compression might
make it harder to sell voters on lo-
cal option levies.
"A big part of these campaigns
is when you're out campaigning
and you say, 'This won't raise your
taxes,'" Sprenger said. "This is not
a silver bullet. You can't say that
because it will."
She said she understood the
difficulties of Sweet Home's situ-
ation, noting that she remembers
a campaign for an option levy to
fund a Bookmobile in Albany a
few years ago.
"How do you pick funding for
jail beds over third-grade reading
levels? Something is inherently
wrong."
Girod agreed, adding that he
thought passage of such a proposal
Sweet Home Mayor Craig Fentiman,
in the legislature would be diffi-
cult.
"I think you could very well
lose," he said. "Timing's every-
thing in politics and the timing's
not right."
Frank, a former Stayton City
Council member, suggested that
Sweet Home consider merging
its law enforcement with another
community, which is what Sublim-
ity and Stayton did.
He said tax reform is the "only"
answer to the levy problems.
"We can't keep doing things
the way we've always done things,"
he said.
Reset at Sale - Also a pro-
posed constitutional amendment,
this would reset a property's as-
sessed value to its real market
value when it is sold or when con-
struction occurs. Taxes would not
be raised on a current home.
Finance Director Patricia Gray
told the panel that "people are
getting a break on their property
Photo by Scott Swanson
standing at left, moderates the forum of city, county and state officials during the City Hall Week activities.
taxes," blaming the problem on
Measure 50, passed in 1997, which
created a new "assessed value" for
all properties at 90 percent of the
property's 1995-96 real market
value.
She said that, plus the capping
of annual growth, have resulted
in huge disparities in tax bills as
property values have increased and
as neighborhoods have gentrified.
A related problem is that, due to
varying ratios used to calculate the
value of new property, "identical
properties with the same sale price,
but permitted only months apart,
can have dramatically different tax
liabilities."
She cited a Lincoln Institute
of Land Policy report that says of
17 states with similar property tax
limitations, Oregon's "has gone the
farthest of any (in the country) in
breaking the link between property
taxes and property values."
In response, Frank suggested
repealing Measure 50 but the other
panel members expressed doubts
that simply resetting the values
would have much effect in Sweet
Home.
Girod pointed out that in larg-
er cities, such as Portland and Eu-
gene, such a move might help.
"If Sweet Home went to a
free-market system, you'd get less
tax revenue," he said, because land
values are very low in the area.
"Be careful what you ask for,"
he said. "If the assessed value is
lower, you get less tax revenue.
There's a disconnect between
Portland and Eugene, compared to
Sweet Home and Waterloo."
Sprenger echoed that warn-
ing.
"In our desperation to pay the
bills, let's make sure we don't do
something that could bite us in the
butt," she said.
Jobs and Economic Devel-
opment - Sweet Home's Commu-
nity Development Director Brian
Hoffman presented a request for:
$10 million to fund the Brownfield
Revolving Loan Redevelopment
Fund, which finances loans that
commercial lenders can't provide
to clean up industrial sites; $25
million of Special Public Works
funding to provide funding to mu-
nicipalities to make industrial sites
"shovel" ready for development;
and $15 million to assist communi-
ties with funding incentives re-use
or redevelop existing industrial
lands.
Hoffman notedthat a League
survey indicated that lack of infra-
structure is the biggest hurdle to at-
tracting new or expanded industrial
development.
"I think we've seen the ben-
efits within our region of having
shovel-ready sites," he said, with a
nod to Lebanon City Manager John
Hitt, who was sitting in the audi-
ence. "In Sweet Home our growth
has been plagued by problems that
could be solved by these initia-
tives."
Panelists were generally sup-
• See City, page 15
BII ml BII lm ml IB IB ml ml
Mail form & your check / money order to:
The New Era
PO Box39 "
Sweet Home, OR 97386
Name:
m|mmi
$32 /Year: Inside Linn County
$40 / Year: Outside Linn County
Address: Cit: State: Zip:
Phone:
Or Calm us with your Visa / Mastercard at (541) 367-2135
and subscribe over the phone,
