This is a story of a state that is highly dependent upon property owners and property taxes to keep government infrastructure running. Our state is a troubled state. The housing bubble collapsed and it’s getting harder and harder for those who still own their property.
There has been legislation passed to protect property owners from over-taxation. Measure 50 put a 3% cap on the “Maximum Assess Value” of the property. This was supposed to be the ultimate protection to homeowners. But there’s loopholes. And our tax-hungry government is very savvy at leveraging and manipulating loopholes. It might be through new classification as property or a “clerical error”.
Through revised statutes such as ORS 311.205, the state even exempts itself from being able to give back the full consideration owed to property owners that might have been swindled by local county assessors.
This story is a prime example of how Jackson County and The City of Ashland is manipulating the MAV of properties for increased tax liability. Both the city and county recognize the errors. They cannot provide sufficient explanation for the errors and will not pay back the full consideration owed.
Because of this, I must make it public. I must document their manipulative and scandalous actions and show other property owners how to identify the red flags and protect ones self from the corruption that exists in our tax system.
Our fine state relies too heavily on property owners to be treating us this way. It is never wise to bite the hands that feed you. Does the city and county really wish to drive out all the existing homeowners? What about the prospective ones? What happens when everyone is foreclosed on we find ourselves in the same situation as Josephine County?
Each homeowner that is compromised by our local government brings us closer to the point of collapse. It’s to the point that Sheriff’s office is shooting people over foreclosures. Will I be the next to have armed enforcement agents breaking down my door and swarming my home? Or quite possibly it’s your front door that gets breached with a very uncivil and hostile eviction notice.
It is time we learn what is going on and how to arm oneself against a gung-ho assessors office that knows every dirty play in the book. Note the lessons and horrors hidden in my story, and learn from the resources we’ve got on the site.
This is a long project and very much in progress. I am hard at work scanning and analyzing documents, legislation, court decisions and other relevant correspondence. I would also like to invite everyone to share their stories and do the same. Together we can end the corruption and show the City of Ashland and Jackson County that their citizens are not scared to play watchdog and hold anyone to account.