Giant Property Tax Increase (SJR 3) Advancing
By Taxpayer Association of Oregon, reprinted in Oregon Catalyst
Senate Joint Resolution 3 would dismantle the protections homeowners have on the rate of increase of their property taxes on their home. Currently those taxes based on the assessed value of your home are capped at 3%. This 3% limit was enacted by voters in 1997 (Measure 50) and placed into the Oregon Constitution. SJR 3 aims to remove it — which could hit homeowners with thousands in higher property tax bills…
The bill tries to win public support by extending some sort of exemption for owner occupied properties, but leaves it to other factors to determine what that exemption will be…expect big property tax increases on your home regardless. As for rental property and business property owners — expect a property tax increase that will be crippling. Every single business in Oregon will be impacted.
We Respond & Your Comments
Oregon legislators face a $1.8 billion budget gap over the next biennium. Think they’ll close it by cutting spending? No – spending is what got them elected and reelected. Spending is the drug they offer voters to keep their own jobs.
They’re going to tax anything and everything to plug the gap they created: coffee, old cars, the air we breathe. But this –Senate Joint Resolution 3, is the big one. If they can turn your property into a free fire zone for taxation they can keep on spending and stuff the budget hole with dollars you earned.
Keep a close watch on this one. It’s big – real big.