Here comes Google
For the past 15 years, Google has been paying no taxes on the multi-million dollar compound they built on the first land they purchased from the Port of The Dalles.
That is about to change.
This year Google will get a property tax bill for those improvements, and it’s going to be a large one.
There were a number of reasons Google chose to come to The Dalles for the first plant they built on their own: low-cost hydropower from Columbia River dams, inexpensive land, Q-Life’s heavy-duty fiber optic loop — and the Enterprise Zone.
The State of Oregon established the Enterprise Zone program so help areas with high unemployement and lower wages. Cities and counties were allowed to designate zones in which companies that invested in them and met certain qualifications were allowed to defray taxes on improvements for a number of years. Most of those deferrals run from three to five years, but in certain cases, that was extended for 15 years.
That’s not to say Google hasn’t been paying any taxes. Operating under the name Design LLC, Google paid $1.87 million for 30.19 acres in the Port of The Dalles Chenowith Creek Industrial Subdivision in 2005. They have been paying taxes on the land itself, amounting to $47,294.32 for 2021.
And under terms of that first agreement, Google paid $250,000 a year to the Enterprise Zone operators, which were jointly Wasco County and the City of The Dalles. Those funds have been used for various projects over the years, including paying off the bond that paid to extend city water service to the Discovery Center.
Google’s was only the second 15-year abatement approved in Oregon. In 2001, Roseburg Lumber Products used the Enterprise Zone tax abatement to build a $22 million plant in Riddle. Oregon. Heather Coffel, Douglas County Assessor said when the abatement ended in 2017, their taxes for the plant were $190,000.
This is by far the largest project, and the first data center in the state. The state officials who calculated the value of the land, buildings, machinery and personal property of the original compound for this first appearance on the tax rolls, came up with a figure of $334,536,180.
According to Wasco County Assessor Jill Amery, property tax bills will be mailed out October 25. Google’s will be a whopping $5,258,841.84. Of course, like all property owners, they have the option to deduct three percent if they pay before November 15. In that case, they would only owe $5,101,076.59.
This is not a one-time payment, but a new revenue stream for all the taxing districts in Wasco County. Here’s the breakdown of what those districts will receive from the Google payment, as provided by Wasco County Assessor Jill Amery. Note that the D-21 increase does not go directly to the local district, but to the state’s general education fund, where it will be redistributed among the districts.
District Total Tax Billed
N Wasco Co SD 21 $1,466,118.73
Columbia Gorge ESD $130,910.89
Columbia Gorge Community College $75,651.28
EDUCATION TOTALS $ 1,672,680.90
Wasco County $1,136,855.57
Wasco County Soil & Water $66,852.14
Wasco County Library $181,812.82
Wasco County 4-H & Extension $66,852.14
Port of The Dalles $53,674.83
N Wasco County Park & Rec $181,727.63
Mid Columbia Fire & Rescue $561,540.96
Col Gateway Urban Renewal $289,844.10
City of The Dalles $806,201.61
GOVERNMENT TOTALS $3,345,361.80
N Wasco County Park & Rec Bond $69,784.25
Mid Columbia Fire & Rescue Bond $46,868.52
Columbia Gorge Community College Bond $124,146.37
OTHER TOTALS $240,799.14
Tax Total Billed Before Discount $5,258,841.84
Google 2022 tax billing
Note* this is the sum of 3 accounts: land, building & structures, machinery and equipment as well as business personal property included in the $334,536,180 taxable value is the assessed value of the land at $3,013,740 which has been taxable in prior years.
When Google first announced in 2005 they were going to be building in The Dalles, their profit that year was $1.465 billion. No worries for Google about paying their new tax bill. According to the website Statista their profit for 2021 was $76.033 billion on gross income of $256.074 billion. That works out to an hourly profit of $8,739,425. So the tax they’re paying to Wasco County taxing districts is less than an hour of their income last year. In fact, just under 36 minutes worth.
Google has been contributing to the community in other ways besides taxes. They gave $100,000 to the city to establish a wi-fi cloud over downtown The Dalles. They have donated computers to schools and libraries, and land for DIG, The Dalles Imagination Garden. They have sponsored gravity races and STEM competitions for local students.
According to the Google The Dalles website, the company has invested $1.8 billion in The Dalles since the data center was built in 2007, and contributed $2 million in charitable grants that impact Wasco County schools and nonprofits.
Wasco County Commissioner Scott Hege, who was Executive Director at the Port of The Dalles at the time Google came said it was a big lift by a big team of people to make it happen. There were other people opposed to the project, he said, who suspected that when the 15 years were up, the company would move everything out and leave a low-taxed empty shell.
“That didn’t happen,” he said. “This is worth the wait and everything we put into it.”