Wasco County and the City of The Dalles have successfully negotiated an agreement among area taxing districts regarding how a Community Service Fee, negotiated as part of a tax abatement agreement with Google as to the construction of two new data centers in The Dalles, will be distributed.
The agreement distributes the service fee, equal to 25% of the tax saving awarded Google each year and capped at $2.5 million dollars, will be distributed to the city, county and six taxing districts according to the tax authority of each district, including the school district.
The funds are considered a service fee, and will not reduce levied taxes received by districts from the state or from local taxes, said Matthew Klebes, who represented Wasco County throughout the process of creating the strategic investment plan with Google.
Receiving service fee payments will be: City of The Dalles (17.3%); Wasco County (24.4%); Mid-Columbia Fire and Rescue (MCFR) (12.1%); Wasco County Library District (3.9%); North Wasco Parks and Recreation (3.9%): Wasco County 4H and Extension (1.4%); Wasco County Soil and Water Conservation District (1.4%); Port of The Dalles (1.2%); North Wasco County School District ((30.1%); Wasco County ESD (2.7%); and Columbia Gorge Community College (1.6%).
The deadline for reaching an agreement between all taxing districts was extended by Oregon Business Development Commission (Business Oregon), under which Google received Strategic Investment Plan approval for potentially two new data centers, following two round of fruitful, but unsuccessful, negotiations between the taxing districts, Wasco County and City of The Dalles, said Klebes. That deadline was extended to May 15.
Wasco County had supported splitting the funds between the districts and a “greater good” project fund that could be used to fund projects outside the scope or ability of individual districts, but that idea was not supported by the taxing districts.
“We couldn’t get consensus in ‘greater good’ projects, they wanted their own boards to make the decision as to whether or not to contribute to a specific project,” said Tyler Stone, Wasco County administrator.
Klebes told the board of commissioners at their regular meeting April 20, “It was a difficult negotiation, but we got there as a community. The big winner here was our schools.”
Commissioners unanimously voted to support the agreement, which will be signed by the county, city and the larger taxing districts.
Community Service Fee payments will not begin until the projects are complete.
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