A8 The BulleTin • Wednesday, april 13, 2022
EDITORIALS & OPINIONS
AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
Heidi Wright
Gerry O’Brien
Richard Coe
Publisher
Editor
Editorial Page Editor
Tax exemptions
for more housing
come with a cost
T
he city of Bend has tried a lot of things to make housing
more affordable. And do you know what?
The average listed home value in
Bend is about $750,000. Rent isn’t a
great deal, either.
The city created a tax on building
permits to bring in some money to
help affordable housing along. It has
exemptions from system develop-
ment charges. And it has property
tax exemptions.
It’s now looking at some new
property tax exemptions. It started
out looking at four. The list has
been winnowed to two.
What’s exasperating is that the
two other tax exemption tools un-
der state law just don’t seem good
enough. What use is a state tax ex-
emption if governments don’t want
to use it?
For instance, Bend needs more
middle-income housing, as well
as low-income housing. And the
city thinks the restrictions on the
state’s middle-income tax exemp-
tion are too inflexible. City staff
and some members of the Bend
Economic Development Advi-
sory Board said Monday they
want to lobby the Legislature to
change it.
The two exemptions that city
staff and members of BEDAB
seemed encouraged by were a
nonprofit exemption and multi-
unit property tax exemption. The
nonprofit exemption would help
organizations, such as Central Or-
egon Veterans Outreach in Bend.
It has a duplex in Bend that cur-
rently doesn’t qualify for a prop-
erty tax exemption. It has too few
units. If the exemption was in
place, it might save the organiza-
tion $3,600 in property taxes this
year on that property. That may
not sound like much. It’s a big deal
to COVO.
The multiunit property tax ex-
emption allows the city a lot of
flexibility to create its own require-
ments. Developments would have
to meet multiple public benefits,
such as affordability and energy
efficiency among other options.
Members of BEDAB and the city
staff discussed Monday that it may
be so attractive to developers it may
be overused. They proposed requir-
ing a review of the policy after every
500 units that were approved. They
also proposed that a third party do
a review of applications to ensure
the tax exemption was necessary for
the project to succeed.
Property tax exemptions come
with tradeoffs. They aren’t sim-
ply good or bad. They are gray. As
much as they promote housing,
they will mean reductions in taxes
for the city, schools, the library dis-
trict, the park district and county
programs. The nonprofit exemp-
tion and the multiunit exemption
can also be approved just by say
the city and the school district. All
the other districts then would have
to accept the exemption for the af-
fected properties.
What are the tradeoffs? Schools
won’t be as badly hurt because
they are funded under an averaged
state formula. How many sher-
iff’s deputies, firefighters or library
books, though, will the exemptions
cost the community? And is that
worth it? That’s the question that
will soon be before the Bend City
Council.
U.S. companies
supporting Russia
should pay a price
O
regon Sen. Ron Wyden, a
Democrat, is taking aim at
companies and individuals
that pay taxes in Russia or to Be-
larus, a Russian ally.
“...The United States should not
subsidize a single dollar of taxes
paid to Russia, which will be used
to fund this cruel war,” Wyden
said in a statement. “If U.S. com-
panies choose to keep paying taxes
to Russia—taxes that are fund-
ing the bombing of hospitals for
women and children—they should
do it without a penny of help from
American taxpayers.”
U.S. companies that make money
and pay taxes in Russia or Belarus
█
get tax benefits, a preferential tax
rate of 10.5% and a foreign tax credit
that offsets U.S. taxes. The tax code
already allows those to be stripped
for countries that support terrorism
or without diplomatic relations with
the United States. Wyden proposed
to add Russia and Belarus to the list.
Certain individuals could also be
targeted with some law changes and
lose things like lower tax rates on
dividends and interest.
U.S. companies that are continu-
ing to operate in Russia may not
want to leave for a variety of reasons.
But the U.S. shouldn’t in turn help
them pay taxes to support the inva-
sion of Ukraine.
Editorials reflect the views of The Bulletin’s editorial board, Publisher Heidi Wright, Editor Gerry O’Brien
and Editorial Page Editor Richard Coe. They are written by Richard Coe.
My Nickel’s Worth
Don’t put growth and tax
dollars first
I read with full approval Phyllis
Sloan’s letter of April 6th. I would
argue that it is past time for our
elected city and county officials to
put welfare, safety and enjoyable liv-
ing ahead of collecting more and
more tax dollars that they will have
to spend. As Ms. Sloan states in her
letter, Bend is at capacity at the pres-
ent time.
I have to assume our elected coun-
cil and planning commission believe
in the climate change theory being
shoved down our throats, assuming
they do, they also must know that
less and less water will be available
to us in the future. Our wonderful
city is disappearing before our eyes.
Our infrastructure cannot handle the
population we have now. Just try go-
ing west on Reed Market Road in the
morning and east in the afternoon.
They will soon start construction
of a multistory complex at the top of
the Reed Market hill above the river.
Not only will it be a eyesore, it will
add a significant number of automo-
biles to our hometown not to men-
tion Reed Market Road. What the
hell are our leaders thinking? I can
tell you: $.
— Charlie Thomson, Bend
Save the trees
Thanks to Roger Worthington
for showing legitimate concern and
raising awareness in his recent guest
column in The Bulletin titled “Save
the Pine Drop ponderosas”, about
the West Bend Project where the De-
schutes National Forest has sold and
is logging and contract selling several
mature ponderosa pines for reasons
they call “fire risk reduction” around
the Phil’s Trail area.
Interesting though while driving
or biking around town, especially on
the south side at many of the con-
struction sites you can see dozens of
large mature ponderosa pine logs 25’
or longer and at least 21” in diame-
ter that were once healthy trees cut
down months ago and are just lying
there wasting away in the mud. Same
age and size trees as on Phil’s Trail,
but no one is claiming or apparently
selling these fallen trees. Curious
how sometimes large trees are either
cut down for profit or just because
they are in the way.
Does Bend really uphold and de-
serve the given title of “Tree City
USA”?
— James Duvall, Bend
Speak up for children
Reading the recent Bulletin article
about the children in Metolius living
in an allegedly abusive and danger-
ous house with their father made me
angry and sad. This is not an iso-
lated incident. The effort to preserve
family units has been pursued over
the children’s need to be in safe and
healthy living conditions. Some par-
ents are just not capable of caring for
themselves let alone children. Chil-
dren are sometimes afraid to speak
up about their situations. Extended
family members may call for help
but are not taken seriously enough.
I urge any professionals in the com-
munity working with children to
speak up for the children that need
help. It really does take a whole vil-
lage to raise a child.
— Margaret Wyman, Bend
Pass the carbon dividend
The Bulletin recently had an article
about how climate change could im-
pact property values and real estate.
The article raised concerns about
how homebuyers may be impacted
by extreme weather events — in
terms of property value, risk of dam-
age to their homes, as well as the
costs of repairing or renovating in or-
der to “climate-proof” their homes.
While it is important for home-
buyers to protect themselves in terms
of where they choose to live, and
through appropriate insurance cov-
erage — we cannot lose sight of the
larger issue... climate change. For
how long can we try to dodge the
impacts of extreme weather events
by cleaning up the mess, repairing
damage, and relocating? We must
confront climate change head-on by
reducing our dependency on fos-
sil fuels to slow the warming of the
planet.
One solid proposal to combat cli-
ent change is the Energy Innovation
and Carbon Dividend Act (H.R.
2307), a bill in Congress now that
would reduce our reliance on fossil
fuels and encourage innovation in
the clean energy sector. A price on
carbon pollution at the federal level
such as this is supported by econo-
mists, scientists, mayors, businesses,
and 3 out of 4 Americans.
Taking steps to keep ourselves safe
when the next disaster event hits is
our responsibility, as is driving down
carbon pollution and bringing cli-
mate change under control. An im-
portant key step we can all take is
to urge our elected officials to pass
smart climate policies.
— Daniel Duffy, Bend
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Bridge the urban-rural divide; support McLeod-Skinner for Congress
BY MARILYNNE KEYSER
M
y husband and I lived and
worked in Clackamas
County for 18 years, he as
the president of Clackamas Commu-
nity College and I as deputy secretary
of state and senior policy adviser to
Gov. Barbara Roberts. After retire-
ment in 2001, we moved to Central
Oregon. I have enjoyed our very dif-
ferent lives as both urban and rural
residents of Oregon. However, I have
been disturbed by how intractable
the “urban-rural divide” has been,
creating a stumbling block for both of
our major political parties.
There is one candidate in the race
for the 5th Congressional District
that has been effective in bridging
this divide. Jamie McLeod-Skinner
captured my support during her
campaign to represent Congressio-
nal District 2 in 2018. Her campaign
took her all over Central and Eastern
Oregon where she met with and won
the respect of rural voters from both
parties. From her early days grow-
ing up in small rural towns, Jamie
has the knowledge, experience and
commitment to listen to everyone’s
voice in order to serve as an effective
leader for both rural and urban Or-
egonians.
One example is Jamie’s under-
standing of and commitment to
tackling climate change. Regardless
of where you live in Oregon, your
life has probably been affected by
the heat, smoke or fires. In Central
Oregon, its effects are dramatic. Ex-
tended extreme drought and ear-
lier and hotter wildfires should be
our number one concern. I believe
that Jamie McLeod-Skinner has a
keener eye and a deeper commit-
ment to fight these challenges than
her primary opponent. I lived in Kurt
Schrader’s district and knew him
GUEST COLUMN
personally. I even voted for him, but
never again!
Consider just two of his votes re-
lated to climate change:
In 2018, Schrader voted for a hor-
rifically anti-environmental package
of bills that cut funding for clean en-
ergy programs, repealed the Clean
Water Rule and removed protections
for Columbia River Basin salmon
and steelhead (“the salmon extinc-
tion rider”). This bill was so destruc-
tive that the League of Conserva-
tion Voters stated that it, “includes
dangerous public health and envi-
ronmental policy riders while also
cutting critical investments in our
renewable energy future.” With Kurt
Schrader’s help, it passed and was
signed into law on 9/21/18.
Then just last fall, he voted against
the Clean Electricity Performance
Program (CEPP), the cornerstone
of Build Back Better’s provisions to
tackle climate change. This legisla-
tion would have required 100% clean
electricity by 2035 and a 50% reduc-
tion in total greenhouse gas emis-
sions by 2030. Schrader voted against
this bill almost exactly one year after
wildfires ripped through Oregon,
destroying over 1 million acres. We
need our leaders to take action on
this NOW and not obstruct legisla-
tion that, if enacted, would go a long
way towards helping to solve this
problem.
Given these votes, I was not sur-
prised to learn that he is ranked in
the bottom four of all House Demo-
crats by the League of Conservation
Voters.
In contrast, Jamie is deeply com-
mitted to addressing the climate cri-
sis and its impacts. She is an engineer
and attorney by training and has de-
cades of experience working on nat-
ural resources issues, specifically hy-
drology. She will fight for reductions
in carbon emissions and other pro-
tections to our environment.
Jamie’s also dedicated to rolling up
her sleeves and helping Oregonians.
Last year she led wildfire recovery
efforts in the city of Talent, provid-
ing tangible results for those families,
including farmworkers and seniors
living on fixed incomes who were
impacted by the fires. She also was
successfully pushing federal agencies
to do more, securing millions of dol-
lars in aid and housing.
Jamie’s integrity, her focus on her
community and her demonstrated
willingness to put Oregonians (ru-
ral or urban) over industry is why I
am supporting her for Congressional
District 5.
█
Marilynne Keyser lives in Terrebonne.