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VOL. 140
NO. 47
8 Pages
Wednesday, November 24, 2021
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Amazon still top county taxpayer
Data centers bring in $11.4 million
table).
Along with those big-
gest ever tax numbers, the
county once again also
handed out record amounts
of tax exemptions. Be-
tween the two major tax
break programs, SIP and
EZ, over $69.2 million in
tax breaks were given out
to 12 county businesses.
Under the SIP, or Strategic
Investment Program, the
big green-energy and gas
generating businesses in
the county such as the new
Wheatridge wind and solar
project, and the older PGE
gas fired electric generat-
ing facility, got over $15.9
million in tax breaks, while
Amazon and other business
like some of the food pro-
cessing plants, received the
more familiar enterprise
zone, EZ, tax breaks total-
ing $53.3 million.
On the residential home
front, Gorman said he was
surprised by the amount
of new construction in the
county, mainly in the north
end. “In the north end,
Boardman and Irrigon area,
there was over 100 new
houses built last year,”
he said. “That was just
astonishing to me.” And
while residential taxation
is a small amount of taxes
compared to overall county
taxation, he pointed out
how important these res-
idential valuations are to
those communities where
the houses are built.
Gorman said with an av-
erage valuation of $250,000
for each new home, it added
approximately $25 million
in valuation to the county.
resume Monday, November
29.
The G-T wishes ev-
eryone a happy and safe
Thanksgiving weekend.
Pictured are a couple of the large Amazon Web Services data
centers at Boardman.
Table shows top 20 tax payors in the county for 2121.
“While on a total county
valuation of $2.9 billion
that isn’t really a lot, it is
still significant and means
greater revenue for those
communities,” Gorman
said. He added that “in the
whole scheme of things in
the county, the industrial
developments and exemp-
tions (which have attracted
the new businesses) is what
is contributing to our large
increase in taxable value.”
About the tax breaks
Gorman pointed out that if
you add the SIP and the EZ
tax breaks together, Mor-
row County is now giving
out more in tax breaks than
it is collecting in tax mon-
ey. “I’m not saying that is
good or bad, I’m just saying
that’s what we are hearing,”
he said.
Gorman warned how-
ever, against taking a partic-
ular company and looking
at its one year’s worth of
tax breaks and comparing
that against other business
breaks in the county. The
structure of each compa-
ny’s tax deal can be differ-
ent, and those deals can be
complex. He urged instead
doing an analysis of each
business’s total tax pay-
ments at the end of their
exemption period to get a
better picture of how the
tax exemption program is
working.
As an example of the
complexity of the tax deals,
businesses that are in the
EZ will make their yearly
large tax payments to the
Columbia River Enterprise
Zone, and then also pay, not
only for existing bonded
debt in a certain tax district,
but also any new bond
levies enacted by voters
in those districts. Gorman
said one of the enterprise
zone’s bigger business-
es, food processer Lamb
Weston, was caught off
guard by the bond payment
requirement. He said Lamb
Weston is in year eight of
a 15-year (tax) exemption
agreement, and subject to
paying for bonding within
the Boardman city limits.
“The lion’s share of the
bond payment was Lamb
Weston’s, and they were
very surprised when they
had to come up with the
additional $315,657 for
their payment,” Gorman
pointed out.
Business property tax
breaks do not extend for-
ever, however, and will
expire, at which time busi-
ness assets come on the tax
rolls at regular valuation
and tax rates. “When the ex-
emption period is over, we
should do an analysis and
look at what we based our
estimates on and compare
them to what did happen
so we can do a better job
in the future of negotiating
our agreements,” Gorman
recommended to the com-
missioners. Commissioner
Jim Doherty agreed, “I
think that is a good plan.”
Table displays increases in valuation of properties in the county for the past 16 years.
E L E VAT E YO U R A DV E N T U R E
Concrete almost complete
CALL
541-989-8221
ext 204
The red concrete stamping being done in Heppner should be
completed this week. Although previously reported the work
would not be done until spring, time and weather have allowed
the workers to finish it sooner. According to Heppner’s city
manager, they did not want to leave the open spaces if it was
not necessary, and it was better to get it done now rather than
having to dig out the fill later. -Photo by Giselle Moses.
NEW
2022
FOR
By David Sykes
Amazon, with its four
big data centers at Board-
man, is still by far the num-
ber one taxpayer in Morrow
County, Assessor Mike
Gorman told the coun-
ty commission recently.
Even though the company
gets generous property tax
breaks, they still racked up
over $11.4 million in pay-
ments this year. Last year
they were also number one,
paying over $9.3 million.
A distant second is Avista
Corporation, operator of a
gas-fired power plant at the
Port of Morrow, coming in
at $3.7 million.
Providing the commis-
sioners with his annual state
of taxation and assessment,
Gorman gave a detailed
report of where the coun-
ty’s valuation is centered,
who gets the tax breaks,
and which companies are
paying the most money (see
table).
He said total taxable
property valuation in the
county, which determines
how much tax money can
be collected, is “moving
up” and got “very close”
to three billion dollars this
year. “We were just $65
million short,” he told the
commissioners. This in-
crease valuation produced
a total $43.7 million in
collectible taxes, or $2.12
million more than last year.
Comparing this to 16
years ago in 2005, there
has been a 181 percent in-
crease in taxable valuation,
producing a 138 percent
increase in property taxes
collected in the county (See
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for the Thanksgiving hol-
iday on Thursday and Fri-
day, November 25 and 26.
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