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Work group presents menu of county revenue options including business license, TLT, timber tax and vehicle fees
Summary
A county revenue-options work group presented a range of revenue ideas — a countywide business license, transient lodging tax, timber severance tax, vehicle registration fee and cable franchise fees — and asked the board for direction and a 30-day follow-up to prioritize options.
Mike Russell, the county public works director, presented a revenue-options report on March 18 that compiles dozens of ideas the work group has discussed since October. The presentation framed options as a menu for the board to consider and asked commissioners to identify which items they want staff to develop further in about 30 days.
Key items discussed included:
- Countywide business license: staff estimated about 4,116 businesses countywide (census-based) and projected potential revenue in the low hundreds of thousands (a figure in the presentation estimated roughly $416,000 annually under one fee schedule) but said more research is needed to determine which businesses are already licensed by cities and how an outside-city fee would be implemented under Oregon law.
- System development charges (SDCs) and administrative allocation: staff suggested reviewing SDCs, which have not been adjusted regularly against a construction-cost index; one proposal would increase the administrative allocation charged to SDC receipts from 5% to 20% to direct funds into discretionary county purposes — a recommendation some commissioners called excessive and said needs additional process clarity.
- School construction excise tax IGA: staff noted an existing intergovernmental agreement that currently yields a 1% administrative allocation to the county; the work group discussed updating the IGA to capture the full 4% administrative share counties are allowed to collect, noting the revenue upside is modest but could cover administrative costs.
- Cable franchise fees: staff recommended studying a franchise-fee program under the federal Cable Communications Policy Act, which caps franchise fees at 5% of cable revenues; presenters cautioned the program is technically complex and would require upfront funding to develop.
- Transient lodging tax (TLT): the report revisited a 2019 recommendation to implement an 8% county TLT; updated statutory changes mean a new split would alter revenue flows and require voter or local-government decisions; commissioners discussed possible local exemptions for residents but noted state law may limit tiering.
- Timber severance excise and vehicle-registration fees: the presentation noted timber and vehicle-registration options as potential large revenue sources but flagged legal and political challenges and the need for voter authorization for some proposals.
Russell closed by asking the board to identify priorities for staff to flesh out and to reconvene in about 30 days for a work session. Commissioners debated focusing staff effort on revenue generation versus cost savings/efficiencies. No vote or ordinance was taken at this meeting; staff will return with more detailed analyses if directed.
