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Sherwood council reviews levy, fee options after consultant models local option levy impact
Summary
City leaders heard a presentation from Piper Sandler showing Sherwood’s property-tax structure gives room for a modest local option levy with limited compression for most households; council members asked staff for a menu of levy/fee scenarios and agreed to a follow-up work session to refine options and consider polling.
Sherwood City Council members spent their January work session probing options to fund public safety, weighing a voter-approved local option levy against commercial and residential fee alternatives. David Williams, a consultant with Piper Sandler, explained how Oregon’s assessed-value system and Measure 5/Measure 50 rules create a gap between real market value and assessed value that a local option levy can target.
Williams told the council that local option levies are typically five-year operating levies that can be levied as a rate per $1,000 of real market value or as a fixed dollar amount, and that they are subject to voter approval. "It can be levied as a rate per thousand or a fixed dollar amount," he said, adding that most jurisdictions use a rate because it captures community value growth.
Using county assessor data, Williams said Sherwood’s overall assessed-value-to-real-market-value ratio is about 54 percent, with residential property…
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