A8
OREGON
East Oregonian
Thursday, October 28, 2021
Google wins more tax breaks for two new data centers
By MIKE ROGOWAY
The Oregonian
THE DALLES — The Dalles
City Council voted unanimously
Monday, Oct. 25, to grant new
property tax breaks for two more
Google data centers, worth tens
or hundreds of millions of dollars
to the tech giant. Wasco County
commissioners voted unanimously
in favor of the tax breaks last week.
Before Google proceeds with
new construction in its property
along the Columbia River, the
company also wants agreement
from the city on a deal to substan-
tially increase the water available
to the company to cool its massive
data centers. The water pact, which
has generated skepticism among
some residents of the small city, is
due for a vote early next month.
Google says it has spent $1.8
billion on its data centers in The
Dalles over the past 15 years.
The company said Monday that it
expects to say more about its plans
in early November.
The new tax agreement is a
vastly better deal fi nancially for the
local governments than three prior
deals for Google data centers built
over the past 15 years.
Google would pay $3 million up
front for each new data center. It
would then pay half of the normal
property taxes for the fi rst new data
center and 60% of regular property
taxes for the second.
While Google employs just
about 200 in The Dalles, two
new data centers combined could
provide more than $6 million annu-
ally to the city, county and local
government agencies.
That’s according to county esti-
mates, based on $600 million in
spending on each new data center.
Potentially, that represents
a 15% increase in what Wasco
County collects in total property
tax revenue each year, and it’s
more than double what Google paid
Oregon’s ag, natural
resources departments
lose few employees
to vaccine mandate
By SIERRA DAWN
MCCLAIN
Capital Press
SALEM — Ten out of
Oregon Department of Agri-
culture’s 489 employees, or
2% of workers, did not meet
the Oct. 18 deadline to get
vaccinated against COVID-
19 and were put on adminis-
trative leave.
“Administrative leave,”
according to recent Oregon
government rules, means
those employees will be given
a grace period until Nov. 30
before the employer takes
“personnel action,” asking
employees to resign.
Other departments related
to farming and natural
resources also lost workers,
though offi cials say the losses
were “minimal.”
According to data from
the Oregon Department of
Administrative Services,
obtained by the Capital Press
through a public records
request, out of 40,056 total
executive branch employ-
ees statewide, 203 workers,
or 0.5% of the state govern-
ment’s workforce, were put
on administrative leave due
to not meeting the vaccina-
tion deadline.
Washington state, by
contrast, lost 3% of its state
employee workforce. Offi-
cials say the contrast is
likely because Oregon left
the work of approving reli-
gious exemptions mainly up
to agencies, while in Wash-
ington, exemption decisions
were made at the state human
resource offi ce level. Oregon
granted religious exemptions
to at least 11% of state exec-
utive branch workers, nearly
double the rate of faith-based
exemptions for state workers
in Washington.
According to the Oregon
Department of Administra-
tive Services, of the 40,056
state employees subject to the
mandate, 4,514 received a reli-
gious exception, 323 received
a medical exception and
roughly 180 religious or medi-
cal exception requests are still
waiting to be processed.
Adam Crawford, the
administrative department’s
external relations director,
said the total percentage of
fully vaccinated state employ-
ees or those in the process of
becoming vaccinated was
83%.
As of Oct. 25, among the
Oregon Department of Agri-
culture’s 489 employees, fi ve
had an approved medical
exemption, 70 were approved
for religious exemptions and
10 were put on administrative
leave.
ODA’s spokesperson
Andrea Cantu-Schomus, told
the Capital Press in a recent
interview that several staff
members already have volun-
teered to help cover gaps as
needed and said the agency
will do “its very best to main-
tain services that Oregonians
expect.”
Of the Oregon Department
of Forestry’s 867 workers —
not including 193 seasonal
workers — only two people
were put on leave. The depart-
under three prior agreements.
City Councilor Dan Rich-
ardson acknowledged that some
members of the community oppose
tax breaks for big companies like
Google. He said he’s troubled by
that idea, too, but feels The Dalles
has to accept it.
“That’s sort of the reality of
the world we live in, that cities
and states have to compete, will
compete, for big projects, and we
either negotiate to try and find
some benefi cial agreement or get
nothing,” Richardson said. “Google
can go many places. It doesn’t have
to build here, or build more here.”
Oregon has some of the nation’s
most lucrative tax breaks for data
centers and puts no limit on how
much local governments can off er.
On the one hand, that gives small
Oregon cities and counties the
autonomy to make their own deci-
sions. But it also forces them to
compete with one another to off er
the biggest tax breaks.
The state’s program of indus-
trial tax exemptions, which dates
to the 1980s, was conceived to
draw large manufacturers and other
major employers, long before the
data center industry emerged. In
the 21st century, it’s proven to be
an enormous windfall for wealthy
Silicon Valley companies, which
receive Oregon tax breaks worth
more than $120 million annually.
Left unaddressed in The Dalles’
new tax deal is how much Google
will pay in property taxes on its
fi rst corporate data center, which
opened in 2006. It comes onto the
tax rolls next year when its origi-
nal tax breaks expire after 15 years.
If Google continues to operate
the aging facility, it could provide
several million dollars more each
year in new property taxes for the
small community.
But Google won’t say whether it
will continue running the original
facility once it becomes taxable, or
if it will make other changes — like
moving the most expensive equip-
ment into newer, more advanced
data centers still covered by tax
deals.
Data centers are still a relatively
young industry. Google’s original
data center in The Dalles was its
fi rst such facility anywhere. So it’s
not clear how long the company
will continue using it, or in what
way.
Google and the Oregon Depart-
ment of Revenue are currently
negotiating over how to assess that
original data center.
It’s an important precedent for
Oregon’s multibillion-dollar data
center industry.
Facebook, Apple and Amazon
have collectively spent billions of
dollars on server farms in small
towns from Prineville to Hermis-
ton. All those facilities could even-
tually generate huge tax revenue
for those communities — or very
little, if the companies shut them
down when they become taxable.
Oregon to increase RV fees
25% for out-of-state campers
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — The Oregon
Parks and Recreation Depart-
ment is requesting public
comment on three proposed
amendments to the Oregon
Administrative Rules that
govern state parks, as directed
by legislation passed during
the 2021 session.
The deadline for comments
is 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10.
One change prohibits indi-
viduals convicted of a bias
crime on public property or
state waterways from enter-
ing state park property for up
to fi ve years, as per Senate Bill
289. The proposed amendment
establishes a process for issu-
ing exclusion notices.
The second change imple-
ments Senate Bill 794, which
increases fees for recreational
vehicle campsites by 25% for
out-of-state residents. Under
the current system, out-of-
ment approved seven medical
exemptions and 128 religious
exemptions.
“We may end up with a
few more on administrative
leave in the coming weeks
or months because there are
a small number of employ-
ees who are not yet compli-
ant, but have either started the
process or are currently on
protected leave,” Joy Kraw-
czyk, spokesperson for ODF,
told the Capital Press.
At O r ego n Wa t e r
Resources Department,
which employs 154 people,
16 religious exemptions were
approved and only one worker
was put on leave.
Oregon Department of
Lands, with 104 employees,
approved 8 religious exemp-
tions and did not dismiss any
workers.
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state campers just pay the RV
site rate. Oregon residents with
RVs pay both the RV site rate
plus an RV license plate fee,
some of which goes to state
park operations. Additional
revenue from this surcharge
will go to pay for day-to-day
operations and repairs to state
parks. With a system nearly
100 years old, those costs go
up every year.
The third amendment
under consideration adds a
requirement that members of
the Outdoor Recreation Advi-
TO COMMENT
Online: oregon.
gov/OPRD/PRP/Pages/
PRP-rulemaking.aspx.
Mail: Oregon Parks and
Recreation Department,
attn.: Katie Gauthier, 725
Summer St. N.E., Suite C,
Salem OR 97301.
Email: OPRD.publiccom-
ment@oregon.gov.
sory Council be appointed by
the governor, as per House Bill
2171. The council will advise
A full copy of the proposed
amendments is available on
the Proposed OPRD Rules
web page.
After reviewing public
comments, agency staff will
present fi nal amended rules
for consideration by the
Oregon Parks and Recreation
Commission at its November
business meeting.
the Offi ce of Outdoor Recre-
ation on outdoor policy and
priorities.
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