OREGON
TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2022
THE OBSERVER — A7
State audit fi nds mortgage deduction helps the wealthy most
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
The Oregonian
SALEM — The Oregon sec-
retary of state’s offi ce is calling
for swift changes to a 99-year-old
tax policy that auditors found
benefi ts primarily white, wealthy
homeowners in urban coun-
ties while leaving thousands of
low-income, rural and Orego-
nians of color to fi ght for housing
assistance.
The state mortgage interest
deduction, mirroring the version
for federal income taxes, allows
homeowners to deduct from their
taxable income interest payments
on mortgages up to $750,000,
including mortgages on vaca-
tion homes. It’s Oregon’s largest
housing subsidy, with an esti-
mated cost of $1.1 billion to the
state’s coff ers this biennium.
Auditors from Secretary of
State Shemia Fagan’s offi ce this
month fi nished their fi rst audit of
the tax policy in its nearly centu-
ry-long history in Oregon.
They said they found the
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group, File
A sign marks a home for sale in La Grande on Friday, Nov. 26, 2021. The Oregon
secretary of state’s offi ce is calling for swift changes to a 99-year-old tax policy that
auditors found benefi ts primarily white, wealthy homeowners in urban counties
while leaving thousands of low-income, rural and Oregonians of color to fi ght for
housing assistance.
policy to disproportionately
benefi t seven counties, all con-
sidered urban by state defi ni-
tions: Clackamas, Columbia,
Deschutes, Multnomah, Wash-
ington and Yamhill.
The audit also found that
Black, Latino and Native Amer-
ican residents received dispro-
portionately less benefi t from the
program than white Oregonians,
and the top 1% of benefi ciaries of
the policy received more money
back than the more than 700,000
Oregonians in the bottom 40% of
people eligible for the tax benefi t.
In her statement announcing
the fi ndings of the audit, Fagan
urged legislators to fi nd a “clear
purpose” for the policy and to
make changes to make sure it’s
meeting that goal. She disparaged
the money wasted on the mort-
gage interest deduction, and said
the state should instead be better
funding housing programs to
help low-income residents.
“Every dollar spent keeping
seniors and working families in
their homes or helping renters
stay housed has been scruti-
nized and debated by lawmakers.
Meanwhile billions of dollars just
walk out the backdoor with no
questions asked,” Fagan said in a
written statement.
Aff ordable housing advo-
cates have called for an end to
the policy for several years,
saying it largely helps only the
wealthiest homeowners that
qualify, and provides no benefi ts
for middle-class or low-income
taxpayers.
A bill that proposed to modify
the mortgage interest deduction
policy failed in the 2021 legis-
lative session. House Bill 2578
called for an end to the rule that
allows homeowners to make
deductions based on the mort-
gage from a second or vacation
home, thereby benefi tting from
two tax breaks. The bill also pro-
posed lowering the limit to mort-
gage debt of $250,000 or less.
Supporters, including the
Oregon Association of Real-
tors, have billed the policy as one
that benefi ts and rewards home-
owners. Doing away with it, they
said, would be unfair to home-
owners when owning a home is
already diffi cult and less aff ord-
able than in the past.
The audit notes that there have
been several bills proposed in
the past fi ve years to modify the
tax policy, but none have become
law.
National Parks boss visits home state, discusses tribal co-management of lands
Sams says Native
co-management
can help restore
public lands
By APRIL EHRLICH
Oregon Public Broadcasting
BEND — This week
was National Park Service
Director Chuck Sams’
fi rst trip back home to the
Pacifi c Northwest since he
was sworn in as the fi rst
Native American to lead
the public lands agency.
Sams’ weeklong tour
included a visit to Bend,
where he attended the
annual Governor’s Con-
ference on Tourism, then
weaved through Crater
Lake, where he met with
park leaders. His trip
wrapped up Thursday,
March 17, with a tour
of the Fort Vancouver
National Historic Site in
Washington state. The
former military base and
fur-trading site is under-
going a $15 million reno-
vation funded by the Great
American Outdoors Act of
2020.
Since his swearing in,
Sams has advocated for
tribal co-management of
federal lands. During his
tour, he noted that the Fort
Vancouver park works
closely with local tribes,
making it one of many
examples in the Pacifi c
Northwest where state and
federal agencies success-
fully collaborate with sov-
ereign nations.
“We have a really great
opportunity to bring in
traditional ecological
knowledge, set up cooper-
ative agreements and even
do some co-management,
especially on the fl ora and
fauna,” Sams said.
Sams is Cayuse and
April Ehrlich/Oregon Public Broadcasting
National Parks Service Director Chuck Sams speaks at the Fort
Vancouver Historic Site on Thursday, March 17, 2022. This was Sams’
fi rst trip back home to the Pacifi c Northwest since he was sworn in as
the fi rst Native American to lead the public lands agency.
Walla Walla. He’s enrolled
with the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation in
Northeast Oregon, where
he grew up. He has a long
history of civic leadership
in state and tribal gov-
ernment. Sams recently
served as Gov. Kate
Brown’s appointee to the
Pacifi c Northwest Power
and Conservation Council,
and was previously the
executive director for the
Umatilla tribe.
Sams said Native
co-management is funda-
mental to restoring lands
to their healthier, pre-co-
lonial conditions, because
tribes have a deep under-
standing of native plants
and animal species.
“It’s a symbiotic rela-
tionship, and I think it’s
important that we fi gure
out how we co-manage
those together to ensure
those species not just sur-
vive, but they actually
thrive on the landscape,”
Sams said.
Sams testifi ed last
week in support of Native
co-management at a
House Natural Resources
Committee hearing. He
cited four parks that are
currently co-managed by
tribal governments —
Canyon de Chelly National
Monument, Glacier Bay
National Park, Grand Por-
tage National Monument
and Big Cypress National
Preserve.
Some policymakers
at the hearing said they
were worried that tribal
co-management would
interfere with domestic oil
production. Sams said that
shouldn’t be a concern.
“We don’t deal with a
lot of oil and gas leasing,
and that’s not within the
realm of the National Park
Service,” Sams told OPB.
“I understood their con-
cerns that they’re bringing
forward, but it’s not nec-
essarily a co-manage-
ment issue as it relates to
what we do with parks and
people.”
The rehabilitation
work at Fort Vancouver
is one of about 120
national parks projects
that received Outdoors
Act funding last year. The
project will rehabilitate
the fort’s 33,000 square-
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