Tax bills show little relief for taxpayers

You got your property tax statement in the mail last week. Eagerly, you ripped open the envelope, ready to be thrilled at the large property tax reduction promised by the state legislature.

Wrong.

In some cases, taxes actually went up in Deschutes County from the year before. Rarely was there much of a decrease, less than most taxpayers anticipated and far less than the 17 percent reduction seemingly promised by elected representatives who rewrote Measure 47 in the last legislative session.

What happened to your tax reduction?

Well, according to Deschutes County Assessor Kim Worrell, the first thing that happened was that the public asked for more public services, and public services cost money.

Some of the promised reduction went instead to the $2 million bond voters approved last year for the new fairgrounds near Redmond, and another $2.1 million went for the increase in the sheriff's operating levy.

Worrell said that "county-wide, I think taxes are probably in the range of 4 percent less than they would have been without Measure 50. And the 17 percent reduction (suggested by legislators) was never calculated from last year's taxes, but from what taxes would have been this year without the effect of Measure 47/50."

Measure 50 was a rewrite by the legislature of voter-approved Measure 47. It rolls the taxable value of property back to 1995, minus 10 percent - unless there was a change on the property that would have increased the value.

Worrell said the Department of Revenue also went through a calculation on what taxes would have been under an unmodified Measure 47 and "those did not come close to 17 percent." About 13 percent was the most that was reduced, he indicated.

Worrell also said the legislature estimated that new construction would be about 4 percent. If it exceeded 4 percent, the legislature decided that the Measure 47/50 cuts would be reduced appropriately.

Worrell didn't know why the legislature instituted this provision, but "it turned out that new construction (in Deschutes County) was about 10 percent," Worrell said, which further the reduction.

To illustrate how tax money is spent, take as an example a property within the City of Sisters. It has a real market value of $191,985. It has a taxable assessed value (1995 value, minus 10 percent) of $167,500.

The tax rate is $14.91 per $1,000 of the taxable assessed value, or approximately $2,497.

That $2,497 pays for the operation of local schools ($722); Central Oregon Community College ($108); and the Education Service District ($17) which provides support, such as special education and specialized libraries, for local schools.

It also pays for county government ($213); Sisters city government ($455); the Sisters/Camp Sherman Rural Fire Protection District ($457); 911 service ($28); the Sheriff's budget ($138); and the County Extension 4H District ($4).

Also included in the property tax, and not limited by any legislation, are bonds and levies passed by the voters including county bonds, ($89); COCC bonds ($30); and the Sisters school district ($236).

Through Measure 5, voters capped education spending at $5 per $1,000 for schools, and $10 per $1,000 for local government. But these caps are based on real market value, not taxable assessed value.

In Sisters, the education taxes are currently $4.41 per $1,000 of real market value, and taxes for government are $6.75. So those caps do not limit taxes in Sisters, though they do have some impact elsewhere in the county.

The reason the Sisters school rate is so low is that Black Butte Ranch contributes nearly 42 percent to the assessed value tax base supporting Sisters schools.

Even so, the tax rate for property in Bend, including bonds and levies exempt for property tax limitations, is $14.65 per thousand, quite similar to Sisters.

Taxes weren't calculated by the local assessor this year, but by the State of Oregon Department of Revenue in Salem. Worrell said this was an effort to "establish a (tax) cut state-wide that reflected the intent of Measure 47/50."

However, this made the process of calculating property taxes extremely complicated.

"It took about three steps last year, and it took 26 steps this year, trying to establish equity statewide," Worrell said. trying to establish a statewide equalization for the alleged cuts

As a result of this effort, there are fewer clear answers as to why taxes are what they are, although Worrell said that basically, the taxes are still figured by dividing bonds and levies by assessed value.

Property owners won't see the breakout of land and improvements on their tax statements this year. That requirement was eliminated by Measure 50. But the information is still available, Worrell said, by getting in touch with the assessors office.

"People can appeal those values separately. People can check with our office. We have that information," Worrell said.