The Real Story- A Column
HILLSBORO, OR — Oregon Governor Tina Kotek’s Prosperity Act (Senate Bill 4084) is really more like the Poverty Act if you live in a city that has allowed Data Centers into your boundaries. There is an old saying in politics: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” For the thousands of Oregonians watching their school budgets shrink and their electricity bills skyrocket, that proverb is becoming a survival strategy.
As Governor Tina Kotek champions House Bill 4084—a bill she calls a “Prosperity Roadmap”—local residents see something far more sinister. From the balcony of the statehouse, the Governor presents herself as a Roman Senator, sipping the wine of corporate “site readiness” while watching the “rabble” of local fire districts and school boards fight for the scraps left behind by multi-billion-dollar data centers. She is acting like a Trump Republican on this issue – either purposefully, because she believes we are ignorant, or that no one has the balls to call her out on it.
The $4.5 Billion “Giveaway Gap.”
4084 offers some positive things, but it is specifically the Governor’s proposal to extend the free property tax “Enterprise Zone” sections that pollute the entire Bill. While Washington’s Governor and State House are about to tax all Data Centers with a separate fee, Kotek and her new advisors want to actually give away Billions to Data Centers and massive AI Advanced Manufacturers that are now emerging in our state. The “Prosperity” being promised comes with a price tag Oregonians simply cannot afford. Based on current data from Tax Fairness Oregon and legislative fiscal reports, doubling the Enterprise Zone exemption from five years to ten is a financial hemorrhage.
Current Hemorrhage: Data centers are already saving nearly $457 million in local property taxes each year …