LETTER: Consider urban renewal district in the long term

CORVALLIS GAZETTE-TIMES, 3/3/2009 by John Detweiler - In May, Corvallis is going to vote on establishing an urban renewal district in downtown Corvallis and paying for it with tax incremental financing.

Those who are for the urban renewal district tell us that this financing will not increase our taxes. However, money will be diverted away from financing general government to financing the renewal district over a 20-year period, which may well result in local governments raising taxes to make up for this lost revenue.

Urban renewal districts in other cities have cost the Corvallis School District over nine teachers so far. If we vote in our URD, Corvallis will lose a fraction of another teacher each year for a period of 20 years.

And, our other local taxing bodies will lose $23.4 million dollars over this 20-year period.

Readers can refer to http://www.peak.org/~detweij for the details on how I computed these numbers.

If we enact the URD, we will have committed over $23 million for the next 20 years at a time when Oregon’s economy and government finances are in complete disarray. Is this a prudent thing to do? Will our local governments try to raise taxes to cover important requirements that we can only guess at now?

John H. Detweiler, Corvallis

See also: CORVALLIS GAZETTE-TIMES OPINION - Editorial: Morse right to seek Rainy Day Fund refill