A recent editorial in The Oregonian correctly pointed out a number of problems with Oregon's property tax system, but several problems weren't mentioned that need to be fixed (
"Hiking your neighbor's taxes," July 30). As the editorial pointed out, our current system allows some property owners to vote to support local option levies but escape paying the temporary additional taxes themselves -- a consequence caused by restrictions that limit general governments and schools to taxing no more than $10 and $5 per $1,000 of real market value, respectively. Through a phenomenon known as compression, taxes that exceed those amounts are reduced until the limits are achieved.Fifteen of the 17 other states that have property tax limitations similar to Oregon's readjust property taxes at the time of sale, which recalibrates taxes according to the market price -- a much better measure of a property's value and an owner's ability to pay.
Oregon's existing system, according to a report from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, "has gone the farthest of any [in the country] in breaking the link between property taxes and property values." We need to re-establish that link by resetting assessed value to market value at the time of sale.
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