The Rate That Never Moved

UNION COUNTY, Ore. - Across nine annual tax summaries, one number never moves.

Under "Union County," in the billing-rate column, the assessor printed 2.9668 in 2017-18. The same number appears in 2018-19, in 2019-20 and in every summary through 2025-26. It is Union County government's permanent property-tax rate: $2.9668 for every $1,000 of assessed value.

Farther across the same line, the imposed-tax column tells a different part of the story. The tax imposed under that line rose from $5,580,672.73 to $7,664,540.03 - an increase of $2,083,867.30, or 37.34%, without an increase in the permanent rate.

Both numbers are true. Together, they show how a government can impose more property-tax dollars in the aggregate under a rate it did not raise. They do not show that every parcel's bill increased, that the county collected every dollar imposed, or that county commissioners made no annual tax decision at all.

THE LINE THAT STAYED FLAT

The assessor's Summary of Taxes is a two-page map of the county's property-tax system. It lists county government, cities, schools, bonds, fire districts, cemetery districts and other public bodies. For each, the first page reports value, billing rate, extended tax, tax imposed after constitutional limits, and the amount expected to be received.

The Union County government line is the starting point.

In 2017-18, that line reported $1,939,880,530 in assessed value on the tax roll, a billing rate of 2.9668 and $5,580,672.73 in imposed tax. In 2025-26, it reported $2,638,938,867 in assessed value, the same 2.9668 rate and $7,664,540.03 imposed.

The assessed value on the countywide roll grew by $699,058,337, or 36.04%. Real market value grew from $3,775,615,680 to $5,893,291,632, or 56.09%. The permanent-rate change was zero.

That zero matters. So does the annual choice behind it.

HOW A FIXED RATE PRODUCES MORE MONEY

Oregon's Department of Revenue describes a permanent rate as a limit expressed in dollars per $1,000 of assessed value. Once established, the department says, the limit cannot be changed by an action of the district or its voters. A local government may impose less than its full authority in one year and return to the full rate later.

Union County did not impose less in the nine-year series reviewed here. Each annual summary lists the county government billing rate at the full 2.9668.

The rate stayed fixed. The property-tax roll did not.

At the parcel level, Oregon generally taxes the lower of real market value or maximum assessed value. Maximum assessed value ordinarily cannot grow by more than 3% a year, but new construction, major improvements, partitions, rezoning and other changes can create exceptions. Properties can also enter or leave exemptions or special assessments. Across an entire county, those changes alter the tax base even when the permanent rate remains fixed.

Union County's aggregate figures are consistent with that structure, but the summaries do not assign the nine-year increase to one cause. They do not say how much came from the annual maximum-assessed-value calculation, new property, changed property, exemptions, special assessments or shifts in the composition of the roll.

Nor does the sheet reduce the imposed total to one simple multiplication. In 2017-18, the county line showed $5,634,327.22 in extended tax, then a $53,654.49 loss to tax-limit measures, leaving $5,580,672.73 imposed. In 2025-26, it showed $7,701,148.67 extended, then a $36,608.64 loss, leaving $7,664,540.03 imposed.

The sheets also separately report a "total value to calculate rates," urban-renewal excess value and a fish-and-wildlife adjustment. That is why total assessed value on the roll is useful for measuring the trend but should not be presented as the lone number that reproduces every dollar in the imposed column.

And "imposed" is not the same as "collected." The assessor's column records tax placed on the roll after the listed adjustments and limits. Cash receipts occur later.

WHAT COMMISSIONERS DID - AND DID NOT DO

The permanent-rate limit may be fixed, but the annual levy is not automatic. Union County commissioners adopt a budget and impose ad valorem taxes each year. The reviewed summaries show that the county used its full permanent-rate authority throughout the period.

On June 24, 2026, Resolution 2026-07 adopted the county's fiscal-year 2026-27 budget at $69,672,232. On the final page, the resolution imposed the permanent rate of 2.9668 and a separate weed local-option rate of 0.1200. All three commissioners signed it.

That was a vote to use the existing permanent rate, not a vote that increased the rate limit.

The document trail also shows why a proposed budget notice is not a final budget. The pre-adoption Form LB-1 listed $69,172,232 for 2026-27 - exactly $500,000 less than the signed resolution later adopted. The same notice displayed $70,365,199 in its prior-year adopted-budget column, while Resolution 2025-12 adopted the final 2025-26 budget at $70,518,135.

Those totals describe budgets across all county funds. They are not the amount of permanent-rate tax imposed, and they are not the permanent rate itself. The final signed resolutions are the records that establish the adopted totals.

ONE TAX STATEMENT, MANY GOVERNMENTS

Calling 2.9668 "the property-tax rate" without naming the government creates another distortion. It is Union County government's permanent rate. It is not a household's combined rate.

The Department of Revenue explains that a property's total tax is generally calculated from its assessed value and the combined rates of all districts serving that property, plus any assessments. Union County's own summaries show those layers: cities, school districts, school bonds, vector control, 4-H and Extension, library local options, fire districts, cemetery districts and others.

Which lines appear depends on the property's tax-code area. Those lines can change independently. A household's total bill can therefore rise because its assessed value changed, because another district's rate or bond levy changed, or because of a combination of factors - even while Union County government's permanent rate remains 2.9668.

The reverse is also important: the nine countywide summaries do not prove that every parcel's total bill rose by 37%. The 37.34% figure measures the increase in aggregate tax imposed on the Union County government permanent-rate line.

THE WEED TAX IS A DIFFERENT LINE

Union County also has a countywide weed-control tax. It appears separately on the assessor's summary at 0.1200 per $1,000 of assessed value.

This is a local-option levy, not part of the 2.9668 permanent rate. Voters approved Measure 31-87 by 4,617 to 3,498 in 2016 and Measure 31-104 by 2,916 to 1,600 in 2021. The assessor's summaries show the weed rate at 0.1200 throughout the nine-year series.

In January 2026, the Weed Advisory Board and county staff asked commissioners to put another five-year renewal before voters. The board unanimously approved Resolution 2026-01 referring the proposal to the May ballot. Measure 31-123 asked for the same 12-cent rate beginning in 2026-27. Voters approved it 5,296 to 3,496, authorizing the levy through 2030-31.

The sequence matters: commissioners approved and referred the proposal; voters authorized the temporary levy. It is a separate tax line, approved through a separate process. If assessed values grow, the aggregate dollars imposed under that fixed local-option rate can grow too.

WHAT THE RECORD CAN PROVE

The nine assessor summaries prove that Union County government's permanent billing rate remained 2.9668 from 2017-18 through 2025-26. They prove that the amount imposed under that line rose 37.34% while total assessed value on the roll rose 36.04%. The signed budget resolutions for the final two fiscal years prove that commissioners continued to impose the full permanent rate and establish the final adopted budget totals.

The records do not prove that every parcel's combined bill increased. They do not isolate every cause of growth in assessed value. They do not turn imposed tax into verified cash collections. And they do not support the claim that commissioners increased Union County government's permanent rate during the period reviewed.

The 2025-26 summary places the two controlling figures on a single line: 2.9668 under "Billing Rate" and $7,664,540.03 under "Imposed Tax Amount." Nine years earlier, the first figure was identical and the second was smaller.

The rate did not move. The tax roll beneath it did.

HOW WE VERIFIED THIS

Valor Investigations reviewed all nine official Union County Summary of Taxes PDFs for 2017-18 through 2025-26, the signed five-page tax and budget resolutions for fiscal years 2025-26 and 2026-27, the 2026 budget-hearing notice, the January 21, 2026 commission minutes, official election records for Measures 31-87, 31-104 and 31-123, and current Oregon Department of Revenue guidance. Percentages were independently recalculated from the figures printed in the primary records. A claim-level source index accompanies the online evidence table.