The Hood River City Council is planning to eliminate new hotels, motels and resorts from receiving future enterprise zone benefits that include tax credits and other construction cost reductions. The plan does not include those businesses currently in the zone.
The Dalles — Money earmarked for the school district over the past five years from an early Google enterprise zone agreement has funded physical repairs and improvements throughout the North Wasco County School District 21 (D21), Chief Financial Officer Kara Flath told the Wasco County Board of Commissioners last Wednesday, May 5.
The fire district is reaching out to other taxing districts for support in changing what it calls an unfair distribution of funds from payments made by Google in lieu of taxes. A resolution from Mid-Columbia Fire & Rescue, signed in mid-March, was read to the District 21 school board last Thursday. The school board agreed to discuss it further at its next meeting.
Agreements are now in place for distribution of Google funds for use on 11 projects that will provide an immediate benefit to area communities. Wasco County and the City of The Dalles set aside $250,000 of the $1.45 million initial payment made by Google, through Design LLC, as part of its third Enterprise Zone property tax abatement deal.
Google announced its $600 million expansion plans for its data center in The Dalles last Thursday. The expansion brings Google’s total investment in The Dalles to $1.2 billion since 2005.
