Elect Karlock to House District 45

Money for Schools or Developers?

Each year Portland collects millions of dollars in property tax money that is diverted to the PDC (Portland's urban renewal agency). Recently the PDC admitted to where this money would have gone, if it was not diverted. Here is their table that shows the PDC took $11.4 million from our schools and $40 million from other government services.

The PDC is Portland's real estate development agency that promoted the million dollar condo towers on the North Macadam area and high density housing in our neighborhoods as well as downtown. A few, politically connected real estate developers seem to get most of these projects.

Since these programs are authorized by state law, I will work to eliminate the diversion of basic services money to urban renewal agencies.

Where Would the Money Have Gone?

Above chart composed from data on page 30 of PDC's  Annual Urban Renewal Report Covering Fiscal Years 2005-06 and 2006-07  (Interestingly, Multnomah County lists the total PDC UR money at  $73.5 million, not $51.2 million, on page 47 of the 2006-2007 TSCC report : The total amount imposed for PDC, $73,547,737, represents more than 98.3% of the total urban renewal taxes imposed in Multnomah County for 2006-07.)

See Pages 45-54 of  the 2006-2007 Annual report of the Tax Supervising & Conservation Commission

What is Tax Increment Financing?

In theory, urban renewal is relatively simple. By incurring debt to pay for public improvements within a specific “plan area”, it is expected that property values will increase due to private investments that would not otherwise occur. This new value is called “increment” or “excess value”. The property taxes from this increase in value is then given to the urban renewal agency to pay off the debt. Revenue generated in this manner is referred to as “tax increment financing” (TIF) or “division of tax revenue”. If there is no increase in assessed value, the urban renewal agency does not collect any revenue. Local taxing districts, such as the county, city, school district, fire district and others, continue to receive the property taxes from the assessed value the district had before the urban renewal plan area plan was formed. This value is called the “frozen value”. (Bold added, from page 45 of the  2006-2007 TSCC report. )