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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 19, 1997)
T w -•» < , V **■ - •*•• ’’ ' •"’ î î "., t X> î Z « *Z * ' •-5 * «♦ «*r ... a N O V 15-DEC This Vernonia Cares banner should be, large enough to remind most people that the door-to-door pickup for the annual food drive will be on Saturday, Nov. 22. Vernonia PTA members are helping Vernonia Cares with the food drive. Stu dents at Vernonia schools will begin their drive on Dec. 1. Helping Vernonia Cares Director Becky Elder, second from right, with the reminder are, from left, PTA members Lisa Edgar, Kelley Murphy-Shaw, and Carey Timmerman. BULK RATE U S . Postage Paid Permit No. 37 Vernonia, OR 97064 FREE 4 N°. 22 “ Voice of the Upper Nehalem River Valley" November 19, 1997 Property tax bills will arrive soon, most are lower After more than a year of in tense debate about reducing property taxes, including votes on two statewide measures and a tax calculation process ominously referred to as the “black box”, Columbia County property owners should soon see the results of that debate. Hitting the mail this week are over 27,000 property tax statements, and the result is generally lower property taxes for residential property owners and higher bills for non-resi- dential properties, according to Columbia County Assessor Tom Linhares. “It’s been a heck of a year for those of us involved in ad ministering Oregon’s property tax system," Linhares said. City, Friends reach agreement on lease It has been a long haul, since last January, for the Ver nonia residents who want to re store and remodel the city- owned “Scout Cabin” in Haw kins Park. After the building was raised for a new foundation in April...by a contractor who hadn’t talked with the city and had no authorization to do so...the volunteers began to work in earnest on fund raising and asked the Vernonia City Council for permission to make the repairs. In June, the council said they would give the volunteers 30 days to gather pledges for the estimated $85,000 needed, and 60 days to actually obtain the funds and/or move the building out of the park. In July, after several citizens expressed support for the pro ject and dismay with the coun cil's approach, the council took another approach. They set conditions for the group of vol unteers, including formation of a formal organization and de velopment of a business plan for operating and maintaining the building. Organizing as the Friends of the Scout Cabin, the group met the conditions. They also ap plied for not-for-profit status, obtained commitments for money, labor and materials to use in the remodeling, and started obtaining pledges from various youth and community groups to use the building when it is ready. At that point, they were ready for the next step. In Sep tember, they started urging the Vernonia City Council to pre pare the documents necessary to transfer responsibility to the Friends. November 3, the council ap proved an agreement to trans fer the building to the Friends, along with leasing the land the building stands on. They never included representatives of the Friends in discussions of what the agreements should include and refused to allow any of the Friends to be involved. Predictably, the lease was un- Please see page 3 “We have reacted to not one, but two major changes to the system in a single year.” Ballot Measure 50, passed by Oregon voters on May 20, 1997, substantially changes the way property is assessed and taxing districts collect property tax revenues. The measure was referred to a vote of the people after the Legisla ture determined that Ballot Measure 47, passed in Novem ber, 1996, was too flawed to implement. Both measures al tered the tax system by chang ing Oregon’s constitution. While Measure 47 generally reduced each property’s tax bill to the amount levied in 1995- 96 less ten percent, Measure 50 limits each property’s as sessed value to the 1995-96 value less ten percent. Mea sure 50 also reduced each tax ing district levy by approxi mately 13.2 percent and con verted most levies-other than those for bonded debt-to a permanent rate. In future years, a property’s assessed value can be in creased by no more than three percent per year unless im provements are made to the property. Coupled with perma nent rates for each taxing dis trict, tax bills will generally be limited to a three-percent in crease per year. New construc tion or remodeled properties will be assessed at more than the three percent limit, but con sistent with existing properties of the same type. “Measure 50 should bring some much-needed stability to the property tax system,” Lin hares said. “Unexpected tax in creases of 20 or 50 percent should be a thing of the past.” No one looks forward to get ting a tax bill, but residential property owners should gener ally be pleased when tax state ments, mailed a month later than usual, begin arriving on Saturday. By rolling assessed values back to 1995-96 less ten percent, tax calculations were based on values 20 to 25 percent below current market value and 13 to 22 percent less than the previous year. While tax rates increased five to ten percent, the higher rates multi plied by lower assessed values will result in tax bills six to 22 percent lower than last year. The biggest reductions will be seen in the rural areas of Clatskanie and Vernonia, due in large part to no levy for re payment of bonded debt on the part of the Clatskanie School District this year, larger timber harvest offset amounts and the decision by the Clatskanie Li brary District to levy substan tially less than last year. A typi cal residential property in rural Clatskanie valued at $100,000 last year, with a tax bill of $942.76, will see a decrease in the tax amount due by a whop ping 21.75 percent, to $737.69, based on an assessed value of only $82,600. “Quite honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect and my worst fear was that, like Mea sure 5, property taxes would not go down much and people would be very angry,” Linhares said. “I’m glad that property owners will finally get the prop erty tax relief they expected,” he said. Non-residential property owners may not be so fortu nate. Because the value of business property, particularly personal property, industrial plants and public utilities, gen erally do not increase in value, the benefit of reducing the as sessed value to 95-96 less ten percent is less significant. In many cases the market value and assessed value are the same. With higher tax rates in most areas of the county, tax bills will be higher for those properties. One of the complaints about Ballot Measure 5, passed in 1990, was that much of the re duction benefited non-residen- tial property. Measure 50 should have the opposite ef fect, according to Linhares. County-wide $26,768,499 is being collected for various tax ing districts...the county, schools, cities, fire districts and special districts. This is 8.26 percent less than last year. An additional $928,599 will be col lected as special assessments Please see page 20 INSIDE: Local shoot-out, see Ike Says..... page 2 Wooden roads, see Museum Piece.......... page 6 Health News on Diabetes.... page 7 Sports..... pages 8-11 Obituaries .......... pages 17-18
