Tax Appeal Favors TrendWest TimeShare Company -2008

Tax appraisal fuels LNG worries
County frustrated with state’s appeal of tax assessments for Trendwest Time-Share

By JOE GAMM
The Daily Astorian

County leaders say they're frustrated with how the state handled the defense of a tax appraisal for a time-share, bringing up questions about whether the same thing will happen with the LNG plant.

But they can't do anything about it.

During Wednesday night's Clatsop County Board of Commissioners meeting, County Manager Scott Derickson said the Oregon Department of Revenue defended an appeal of tax assessments for the Trendwest Time-Share Facility in Seaside.

"Generally speaking, we were unhappy with the state's defense of that," he said.

The Oregon Tax Court awarded a refund of more than $791,000 to the time-share company - plus more than $112,000 in interest. For the past three years the entire county has been bearing the burden of refunding the taxes.

Warrenton stands to miss out on $21,000 in tax disbursements because of the refund this year. Members of the Warrenton City Commission rebelled Tuesday, calling for criminal investigations.

"The city's argument is that taxing districts are losing revenue to refund money to an appellant in a case where they had no jurisdiction over them," Derickson said.

He said state law requires the refund to come from the entire county.

"We have no discretion over that. I understand the principle that you would bankrupt districts otherwise. Is that the most correct and equitable way for the state to dictate how refunds occur?" Derickson asked.

"The city was surprised to learn we weren't getting the funds we were expecting. We felt the county should have advised us sooner than they did. They advised us when we asked the question. We sent a letter to the county manager expressing our displeasure," said Warrenton City Manager Bob Maxfield.

Jim Scheller, a candidate for the District 2 commission seat, said Wednesday that he told representatives from NorthernStar LLC - the company seeking to build a liquefied natural gas terminal at Bradwood Landing - that he believes they'd do exactly what Trendwest had done, and come back and sue the county after the first assessment.

He said one of the big arguments for LNG is that it would be a $700 million-facility that would bring in $7.5 million to the county - but the facility hadn't been assessed yet.