I must admit that I look forward to the occasional articles on Google that are published in The Chronicle. I find them humorous and always good for a laugh.
In particular the statement from Scott Hege in regards to the $800,000 Google is paying out instead of taxes. Supposedly twice as much as anyone else is paying.
That is a number that makes a good sound bite but is a completely misleading number. If he wants to present accurate information he needs to supply a chart showing:
1) The company name
2) The assessed valuation
3) The taxes due for that valuation
4) The taxes actually paid for that valuation
5) The tax subsidy the taxpayers of Wasco County are providing to the listed company.
With that information the taxpaying public can make its own evaluation as to whether a company is paying its fair share in taxes to the community, and that we are getting a reasonable return on the tax subsidy provided to that company.
As for the claim of $9 million in grants, that is a very interesting choice of words used in making that claim. It can lead a reader to think that the $9 million was spent here, when, in fact, that is not what it says. It actually says the $9 million dollars was spent in Oregon, and provides a few local charities as examples of where the money went. It does not say that the money was donated locally.
A previous article published in The Chronicle quoted a number of $777,000 as being donated locally. That is probably a more accurate number for local donations.
So keep the humorous articles coming, we all need an occasional laugh.
All information in this letter was researched using Microsoft Bing.
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