Gaffney Lane Neighborhood Association

tax relief Courtesy of Tri-City Service District

Mar 06, 2001

In 1982, the Tri-City Service District (TCSD) issued $25 million in bonds to finance a portion of a facility to treat the wastewater that is conveyed from the District?’s member cities. The voters of the Tri-City District approved the bonds. The Tri-City Wastewater Treatment Plant is located in Oregon City.
Today, two more years of debt remain on the bonds. This debt service is payable from a property tax levy on all taxpayers within the District. The associated property tax levy rate for TCSD for these bonds should fall by approximately half next year, then to nothing thereafter. As a result, this will save the owner
of a property assessed at $130,000 approximately $100 in property taxes annually.
As a condition of issuing the bonds, TCSD was required to keep a reserve in place that was equivalent to one year of debt service. This reserve has earned some interest income over the years. The final payment is scheduled for 2002-03. The result is that TCSD will only have to levy approximately $1.3 million next year, 2001-02, for debt service and will not levy anything in 2002-03.
In this fiscal year, 2000-2001, the rate for this levy is approximately $.80 per $1,000 of assessed value. For example, this means that a property assessed at $130,000 will pay approximately $104 in property taxes to help retire the debt service.
Voters formed the Tri-City Service District in 1979 to provide sanitary sewer transmission and treatment services for the cities of Oregon City and West Linn and for a portion of the City of Gladstone. Water Environment Services, a Department of Clackamas County, is responsible for the general
management and operation of this sanitary sewer district.