Letters to the Editor: Sept. 26, 2025
Just keeping pace
I am not a landlord, but found it amusing reading the article about how rent prices have risen 54% from 2014 to 2024.
The article stated the median apartment rent in 2014 was $847, but by 2024, it had risen to $1,305 per month. During this same time period, my home property tax in McMinnville rose 49%.
Considering all the other cost increases associated with maintaining a building, it appears as though landlords are simply keeping pace with property tax increases. It looks like the city is as much culpable as it suggests landlords are.
Albert Endres
McMinnville
Taxed to the max
In 39 days, we will be asked to vote on another tax measure for city of McMinnville, this one for new parks and recreation facilities.
The city council has authorized $25,000 in taxpayer money to persuade you to vote “yes.” I will provide information on the bond here that it may not provide, and for free.
We are already paying on a $2 per thousand tax base for the new combined urban/rural fire district, a $23 million city street bond, a $90 million school bond, a $140 million community college bond, utility rate increases of 12% over the next three years, and a $13 a month “city emergency fee” on our utility bills, maybe forever. We’re also facing the prospect of a stormwater runoff utility fee of $10 to $20 a month.
You need to ask yourself, especially if you’re living on Social Security, or you’re among the 50% of city residents with less than $65,000 in annual household income, can you afford another $98 million bond added to your tax burden for the next 20 years?
Bill Bordeaux
McMinnville
Comments
Otis
We wouldn't have to keep raising tax percentages if everyone's income grew with the cost of living. Low wages = less tax revenue.
Don Dix
Help me out here - besides public employees, which labor sector receives a COLA increase annually? And obviously, when wages in the private sector raise, so does the cost of the product or service provided (which also effects the COLA). Never going to catch up to the COLA with that formula.
Lulu
Bill Bordeaux is absolutely right. Enough.
Otis
I was really hoping the rapture would solve our problems.
CubFan
PART 1
Bill Bordeaux, you nailed it! There is a cumulative effect of the taxes and fees we have slowly absorbed over time. Before the fire department fiasco and the “user fees” on the utility bills, the average household was paying $1149 per year for city taxes and fees.
Currently, with the new fire department, and the “user fees”, the average household now pays $1649 a year for city taxes and fees. (a 43% increase from what we were paying)
NOW, hold onto your hat. Our illustrious Governor Kotek just rammed through the behemoth Transportation bill which, with fees and taxes, will cost the average household $42 a MONTH. If the city decides to add the remaining part from the fire department tax authority, if the Park & Rec bond passes, and if the city adds an estimated $15 a month for the crumbling stormwater system, then the average McMinnville household will see taxes and fees jump to $2661 a year. That’s well more than DOUBLE from $1149 just a few short years ago.
CubFan
PART 2
You mentioned the city street bond. This expires in 8 years, and you can be sure the city will put together a replacement bond. Mac Schools are already stating they are preparing a bond for 2026-7.
Nationwide, credit card debt has skyrocketed. So much so, that credit companies are reporting that once “prime customers” are now becoming delinquent on monthly payments. More than half the citizens in McMinnville are struggling to stay in their homes. And if housing is a difficult, it’s not hard to connect the dots and see that ALL parts of cost of living are a struggle as well: groceries, healthcare, taxes, insurance, car payments, utilities, gas. Everything is going up… everything except my paycheck.
A recent article in the Oregonian stated that one third of Oregonians couldn’t cover a $400 emergency. 67% of US workers are living paycheck to paycheck. Nearly half of all Americans now worry about debt every single day. It’s not a pretty picture. God help us all.
Visionaries for our city rightfully say that the Park and Rec Center will be a legacy for generations.
The Park & Rec bond, costing the average household” just $218 a year”, is a small portion of the $2661 more for taxpayers. But where do we, as taxpayers, draw the line? The only portion of this $2661 increase that we can control are the bonds, and the only bond right now we can affect is the Park & Rec bond.
It’s a conundrum… vote for the Park & Rec bond, a “crown jewel” for our city for sure. But in doing so, we will add more debt on the backs of people who are already struggling.