NEWS
BY M I C H A E L T O B I N
ZONES OF SILENCE
The Shedd Institute
www.theshedd.org - 541.434.7000
Local officials still won’t discuss
poor oversight of enterprise zones
M
oney talks, or so the saying goes. But when asked about the lack of oversight in
Lane County’s economic development incentive known as an enterprise zone,
Lane County, Springfield and Eugene officials still have little to say.
In September, Eugene Weekly published a cover feature investigating en-
terprise zones across the county. The program, which gives private companies
property tax breaks in exchange for creating jobs, has cost Lane County taxpayers almost
$15 million over the past 15 years.
Despite the stated intent of the program, local and county officials exert little oversight
over the programs’ participants.
EW reached out to members of Eugene and Springfield city councils as well as county
officials asking for comments on the article and the lack of oversight. The emails went
mostly without response.
So we tried again.
Lane County assessor Michael Cowles, who did not respond to requests for comment in
the initial story, did not respond to emails asking about strengthening the program’s oversight.
EW also reached out to Kelli Weese and Erin Reynolds, the city of Florence’s economic de-
velopment coordinator and city manager, respectively. ACS Cable, an Alaskan cable company
located in Florence, received a $79,000 tax break in 2009 and created only one job in return.
Weese and Reynolds did not respond to EW’s latest request for comment.
For the most part, officials in Eugene didn’t respond to questions about the program.
EW contacted Eugene city councilors as well as Amanda D’Souza, the city’s business de-
velopment analyst.
Of Eugene’s city councilors, Greg Evans and Emily Semple replied, saying that they
would look into the issue and get back to EW. They haven’t gotten back, so far. Claire
Syrett responded via email after deadline, mentioning clawbacks and referring EW to the
“local criteria that the council has developed for that tax break program,” and to city staff
and the city website.
EW tried to follow up with Springfield’s mayor Christine Lundberg, economic development
coordinator Courtney Griesel, City Manager Gino Grimaldi and all the members of the Spring-
field City Council. None of Springfield’s officials responded to EW’s request for comment.
Springfield has given away millions in tax breaks to companies such as International
Paper. In International Paper’s case, the company does not need to create any new jobs but
rather pledges to maintain a certain number of jobs because they invested $101.6 million
to update old mill equipment.
Under the agreement, International Paper must maintain at least 208 employees. The
company currently has 272 employees, and although there are no plans to do so, Interna-
tional Paper could lay off 64 workers and still walk away with an $8.5-million tax break.
Only two officials involved with county politics responded to EW’s request for com-
ment: Joe Berney, who will be Springfield’s Commissioner after beating incumbent com-
missioner Sid Leiken in May’s primary, and Commissioner Pete Sorenson.
Berney says he recognizes the value of enterprise zones and wants to be sure that the
public’s money is being used effectively and for the right purposes.
“I want Springfield to benefit from any and all economic development resources it
can,” Berney says, “and I want them to be used properly which requires accountability.”
Sorenson offered a similar view, saying that governments need to ensure that the com-
panies are complying with the terms they agreed upon.
“I think that whenever the government offers incentives, whether it’s the federal, state,
county, city or local government, the incentives need to be fair, non-discriminatory and moni-
tored for whether they have measured up to the promise at the beginning of the incentive.”
Berney says Springfield is experiencing economic growth and that economic development
incentives like enterprise zones should be aimed at providing living-wage jobs for local residents.
“I really think that we’re seeing a shift to Springfield as a dynamic center of where Lane
County’s economy is growing, which is an exciting transition that we need to do correctly.
We’re not just creating jobs but creating jobs that address the public good,” he says.
Sorenson has ideas for how to provide these jobs — training workers in vocational
schools and investing in education. Sorenson referred to this as having “a variety of tools
in a toolbox,” that deal with the community’s needs.
“I would like to see us move to what I call the ‘basics’ of the economy — investments
the government could make in people,” Sorenson says, “We’re talking about raising the
skill level of workers so that we can attract business who will want to hire those workers.
Adopting a high skill level economy will do us better in the long run.”
Sorenson says that a skilled-worker base will allow workers to “matriculate into high
paying jobs.”
Berney adds that there should be nothing to stop the use of economic development in-
centives, so long as they’re used for improving the lives of local workers.
“There should be nothing stopping us from using the money to create those jobs for lo-
cal residents and the public good,” Berney added, “as opposed to using the money simply
to increase private profit without creating new and needed jobs, which is the intent of the
enterprise zone program.”
Berney and Sorenson, together with newly elected commissioner Heather Buch, will
make up a progressive-leaning majority on the Lane County Commission when Berney
and Buch take office in January. ■
Nov 30 - Dec 16
The Shedd Institute
A Jazz Kings
Christmas 2018
Ring
Those
Bells
Dec 6, 7:30 pm
Dec 9, 3:00 pm
Coming up next at The Shedd…
1.17 Big Head Todd
1.26 Kalani Pe’a
1.27 microphilharmonic:
Society of Private Music
1.31 Jake Shimabukuro
2.2 Lovett & Hiatt (Sold Out)
2.2
Chico Schwall: Blind Willy
McTell & The Carter Family
2.7-10 The Jazz Kings: Tonight
You Belong To Me
2.13 Ehud Asherie plays
Ernesto Nazareth
eugeneweekly.com • November 21, 2018
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