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EastOregonian.com
2017 RECREATION
& VISITOR’S GUIDE
MARCH 25-26, 2017
141st Year, No. 115
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
UMATILLA COUNTY PROPERTY TAX BREAKDOWN
BENEFITS AND BURDENS
Voters weigh price tag of new bonds with community’s best interests
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
As Hermiston and Pendleton
voters consider two major bond
issues in May, residents are
looking at their property taxes
and asking what they’re already
paying for.
A $9.93 million bond for
fi re services in Pendleton and a
$104 million bond for Hermiston
schools would add to the annual
tax bill of citizens in those taxing
districts.
In Hermiston, the school bond
would add 90 cents per $1,000 of
assessed property value. That’s
about a $135 annual increase on
a home with $150,000 assessed
value. The bond would pay for the
replacement of two elementary
Tax rates
in Umatilla
County
EO photo
Signs supporting the Pendleton fi re bond and Hermiston
school bond have begun popping up in town.
schools and the construction of
a new one, plus renovations at
the high school and Sandstone
Middle School.
Source: Umatilla County Dept. of Taxation,
compiled by Jayati Ramakrishnan
Daniel Wattenburger and Alan Kenaga/
EO Media Group
in the state is Linn County at 1.22
percent and the lowest is Curry
County at 0.6 percent.
Rates are affected by multiple
factors: Each code area is made
up of overlapping taxing districts
covering schools, fi re and water
services, as well as things like
library, radio and cemetery
districts. All Umatilla County
residents pay taxes to the county,
the Port of Umatilla and Blue
Mountain Community College,
but only those within city limits
pay to their city.
Although Measure 5, passed in
1990, limits the amount citizens
can be taxed to $5 per $1,000 for
education and $10 per $1,000 for
government, there is an exception:
See TAXES/13A
$3,315
$676 or
20.4%
$1,707 or
51.5%
Bonds
Government
Education
Tax rates homeowners pay
from select Umatilla County
taxing districts. Different tax
rates may exist within each
community so the most
common rate was used.
In Pendleton, the bond would
add 62 cents per thousand to
property taxes, or a $93 increase
to a home assessed at $150,000.
It would pay for a new fi re station
on part of the old St. Anthony
Hospital site on Court Avenue.
The county is divided into
more than 100 “code areas,” all
of which are taxed at slightly
different rates.
The lowest rate in the county
is an unincorporated area outside
Ukiah, at a rate of $9.84 per
$1,000 of assessed value. The
highest rate in the county is inside
the Hermiston city limits, at a rate
of $22.11 per $1,000. Pendleton’s
highest rate is $19.67 per $1,000,
though there are several lower
rates within the city due to over-
lapping districts.
Compared to the rest of Oregon,
property taxes in Umatilla County
are quite high, with an average
rate of 1.18 percent. The highest
Tax rates are
based on a home
with an assessed
value of $150,000.
$2,818.50
$2,415
$383 or
13.6%
$640 or
26.5%
$1,516 or
53.8%
$850 or
35.2%
$2,602.50
$2,385
$381 or
16%
$1,090 or
45.7%
$2,370
$458 or
17.6%
$2,139
$294/12.4%
$1,213 or
46.6%
$434 or
20.3%
$1,164 or
49.1%
$774 or
36.2%
$925 or
27.9%
$925 or
38.3%
$922 or
32.7%
$921 or
38.6%
$929 or
35.7%
$920 or
43%
Incorporated
Unincorporated
Incorporated
Unincorporated
Incorporated
Unincorporated
Hermiston
Pendleton
NOTE: Totals may
not equal 100 due
to rounding.
Umatilla
$1,875
$1,680
$200/11.9%
$576 or
34.3%
$910 or
38.4%
$911 or
54.2%
Incorporated Unincorporated
Milton-Freewater
$30
or
1.6%
$934 or
49.8%
$1,476
$30
or
2%
$531 or
36%
$914 or
61.9%
$913 or
48.7%
Incorporated
Unincorporated
Ukiah
Rates for 2016-2017 tax year. To access a complete list of code areas and tax rates visit www.eastoregonian.com
Budget cuts would hit local charitable efforts
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
In 2015, more than
2,700 households and 7,300
people throughout Umatilla,
Morrow,
Gilliam,
and
Wheeler counties received
federal funding to help heat
their homes.
President Donald Trump’s
proposed budget eliminates
the Low Income Home
Energy Assistance Program
that provides the aid. That
AP Photo, File
This March 2016 fi le photo shows a total solar
eclipse in Belitung, Indonesia. The total solar eclipse
on Aug. 21, will be the fi rst in the mainland U.S. in
almost four decades.
Total eclipse in the
heart of Oregon
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Oscar Garcia, a driver for the Fresh Alliance program, does inventory inside the
CAPECO warehouse in Pendleton. The community action program loses approxi-
mately $2 million in President Trump’s proposed budget.
has Paula Hall worried.
She’s the CEO of the
nonprofi t Community Action
Program of East Central
Oregon, which administers
LIHEAP and other measures
to help local people in need.
“I just don’t know how
our community will survive
without that,” she said,
adding this past winter “was
a treacherous season for a lot
of our clients.”
The organization received
almost $1.4 million in
LIHEAP funds for fi scal
year 2015-16, and more than
$1 million went directly to
paying energy bills, keeping
oil furnaces fi lled or wood
stoves burning. Hall said in
all, 7,319 people in the four
counties received LIHEAP
that year, and 42 percent
were children and 16 percent
were seniors.
The 2016-17 budget is
relatively the same, Hall
said, and she anticipated
similar service numbers for
the period.
Trump’s budget also elim-
inates the U.S. Department
of Energy’s Weatherization
Assistance Program, which
provides grants to improve
the energy effi ciency of
the homes of low-income
families. Hall said CAPECO
for 2015-16 had a $383,000
budget for weatherization,
which included grants from
other sources, and wrote
checks for almost $200,000
to local contractors to work
on 34 households.
See FUNDING/14A
A million people
expected to travel
for solar eclipse
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Umatilla County is antic-
ipating a fl are of tourism
leading up to the darkness
of this summer’s total solar
eclipse.
Pendleton, in particular,
may serve as a base camp
for the national and inter-
national visitors expected
to descend upon Oregon for
the event, which will begin
shortly after 10:15 a.m.
Monday, Aug. 21.
More inside
For a map of where
the total eclipse will
be visible in August
see Page 14A
One million people are
expected to travel to Oregon
for the celestial experience,
roughly a quarter of the
state’s total population.
Grant, Wheeler, Baker and
Malheur counties lie within
the path of totality for the
eclipse and should make for
some of the best viewing in
Eastern Oregon.
Factor in the region’s
See ECLIPSE/14A