By Aileen Hymas
For Columbia Gorge News
THE DALLES — Several large corporate property tax appeals in Wasco County are forcing officials to set aside millions that might otherwise flow to schools, fire districts and other local services as yet another wave of valuation disputes wind through state and court review.
At a Feb. 4 county board meeting, Wasco County Assessor and Tax Collector Jill Amery told commissioners that what had been “a pretty quiet appeal season” has shifted into “this rolling loop of appeals” largely involving utilities and industrial properties appraised by the Oregon Department of Revenue.
Under Oregon’s Potential Refund Credit law (ORS 305.286), the county must hold back disputed tax amounts in an interest-bearing account rather than distribute them to taxing districts to avoid later cash-flow issues if companies win.
Amery said the reserve “keeps it safe … we don’t have to claw back,” a scenario that’s tying up potential tax revenue.
Utilities appealing intangible assets
The county is reserving funds tied to renewed appeals from major centrally-assessed utilities:
• Charter Communications — $140,000
• Lumen Technologies — $140,000
• PacifiCorp — $100,000
These companies are again contesting the valuation of “intangible assets,” a recurring issue in statewide utility assessments.
Intangible assets are non-physical sources of value a company owns — such as brand recognition, customer contracts, patents, software, and goodwill — rather than land, buildings or equipment. They matter in property tax cases because the percentage of value coming from these assets is taxed differently from physical sources under Oregon law.
Tax disputes can arise over how much of a company’s value should be treated as taxable infrastructure versus exempt intangibles, and even small shifts in that split can impact the final tax bill.
Because Charter, Lumen and PacifiCorp operate telecommunications and electric infrastructure in Wasco County, their tax bills support local districts that rely on utility property values for stable revenue.
$750,000 refund in industrial abatement case
Amery also described what she called “a first for me”: an industrial company that had received enterprise zone tax break but failed to meet employment requirements, triggering disqualification.
An enterprise zone is a type of tax break implemented in the 1980s to attract more factories to Oregon. A business can apply for a property tax exemption for a limited period, usually 3-5 years, on the new value of certain investments they make within that zone, usually a new plant and/or equipment. The Oregonian found in 2022 that three quarters of enterprise zone savings in Oregon go to large tech companies owned by Apple or Google.
The public tradeoff is straightforward: for a few years, the business’s qualifying new investment is exempt from local property taxes, which can reduce tax revenue in the short term, but the program is conditioned on measurable hiring/compensation requirements and documentation. If those requirements aren’t met, the benefit can be lost.
After dropping its challenge to the disqualification itself, the company instead appealed its property value.
Following a new appraisal and settlement in court, the case resulted in a refund of approximately $750,000 for the cumulative 5-year period.
“So now there is this very large reduction because they weren’t transparent, and apparently, for all of those years that they were in abatement, the value was not what they said it was,” Amery said, underscoring the risk of relying on self-reported industrial returns between Department of Revenue site visits.
The case prompted concern from local districts about whether they might have to repay previously distributed tax revenue, a scenario the reserve system is designed to avoid.
Solar developer appeal could tie up $1.7 million
The largest exposure involves Avangrid, a renewable energy company with solar facilities in southern Wasco County. Avangrid has appealed its 2024-25 and 2025-26 centrally assessed values and also faces a dispute over administration of Oregon’s Rural Renewable Energy Development (RRED) zone abatement.
The company exceeded the maximum abatement amount, creating a taxable portion now in question. Amery said the county will place the entire tax payment, estimated at more than $1.7 million, into a potential refund credit account.
Complicating matters, Amery told commissioners there are currently four different interpretations of how the RRED program should be administered, with Business Oregon and the Department of Revenue in conflict.
She said she would support an appeal to obtain clarity through the court system, noting that counties are applying the program differently across Oregon.
Until all these appeals are resolved in court, more than $2 million in potential refunds are sitting in accounts.
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