Tech workers are increasingly looking to leave Silicon Valley

Re:Tech workers are increasingly looking to leave Silicon Va... by JoshTriplett on Monday February 29, 2016 @04:09PM (#11198530)

Oregon solved this problem differently: there's a hard annual cap on property tax increases period, which doesn't change when the property changes hands.

That prevents people from being taxed out of their home, without creating a situation that makes it hard for people to buy new homes.

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Re:Tech workers are increasingly looking to leave Silicon Va... by presto8 on Monday February 29, 2016 @09:01PM (#11200320)

The Oregon system started out with good intentions but ended up being devilishly complicated to understand and unfair to many people. It's probably a great case study in the long-term unintended consequences of laws intended to control real estate taxes.

The Deschutes (Oregon) County Tax Assessor's office made a really good video explaining how three almost identical houses in the same location can have completely different tax bills:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo_hSySAC2A

In addition to what the video says, I wanted to point out that the 3% hard annual cap you mention is only on the property's Maximum Assessed Value, which is only one of the many inputs into the computation for a property's tax bill. For example, one thing that can cause taxes to go up more than 3% are general bonds approved by voter measure.

Portland Commissioner Steve Novick also wrote a really good article about all of the problems with Oregon's tax system and made some recommendations:

https://www.portlandoregon.gov/novick/article/428020

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