Rep. Mike McLane (R-Powell Butte) today secured House passage of legislation to provide more certainty to companies operating data storage centers in Oregon Enterprise Zones. He successfully carried SB 1532, which clarifies that the data centers are not a centrally assessed property under Oregon tax laws.
Rep. McLane introduced the House version of the bill, which he said was needed to maintain Oregon’s position as a key international destination for data storage.
“SB 1532 honors enterprise zone agreements with Facebook and others who’ve built data centers and created jobs in our community,” Rep. McLane said. “By ensuring the Department of Revenue will not upend these agreements, this legislation restores certainty to Enterprise Zones as to how data centers will be taxed. This certainty is critical to bringing jobs and investment to rural communities like Prineville.”
The legislation has been in development for several months, after the Department of Revenue initially sought to assess the data centers’ property taxes based on “intangible” assets such as a company’s brand, data files and patents. Because intangible assets significantly increase the value of a company, Facebook and other companies could have faced unexpectedly large tax bills.
Though the Department of Revenue issued a temporary rule to address the issue, Rep. McLane said legislation was necessary to ensure data centers in enterprise zones are not centrally assessed, as well as to offer certainty for companies that were considering locating data centers in Oregon.
SB 1532 now moves to the Governor’s desk for his signature.
