The Real Story – A Column
The Herald has long covered Data Centers- every aspect of them and their proliferation in our County and our State. And one of the stupidest things we offer as Oregonians and Hillsboro residents is allow these energy suckers to get away with is fleecing us of Property Taxes which we are owed- hundreds of Milllions of property taxes that we need for our schools, fire and polics, roads…you name it; we are being worked over and laughed at by all of the Data Center players. But the corporate “gravy train” in Washington County just hit a wall of its own making.
In a ruling handed down today, January 2026, and first reported this morning by Bloomberg News, the Oregon Tax Court told Beaver Ventures LLC—a shell for the global giant Digital Realty—that “close enough” doesn’t cut it when you’re asking for millions in taxpayer-funded gifts. The court tossed out a $3.42 million property tax exemption, essentially forcing one of the world’s biggest data center operators to actually pay the bill for the 2024-2025 tax year.
In a decision issued Jan 29, 2026, the Oregon Tax Court Regular Division (TC-5485) affirmed that Washington County was correct to deny the $3.4 million in exemptions sought by Beaver Ventures LLC…