Remarks by Phil Chang
312 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 5 of 13
- Play at 5:04:53
“It's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion? Well, I will repeat that I think that this is an inadequate product. And I've given many reasons for why I think that in the past. No need to repeat them now. But I will be very interested in revisiting this comprehensive plan with a new board of commissioners in 2027. With that, if there's no further comments, we can proceed to the vote. It was, you made the motion. Commissioner Adair, sorry, Commissioner DeBone? Yes. Commissioner Adair? Yes. And chair votes no. Thank you. Thanks.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 5:05:44
“Well, actually, should I do the second reading first before we?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 5:05:58
“Okay, before the Board of County Commissioners of Deschutes County, Oregon, an ordinance amending ordinance number 2025-007 and Title 23, the Deschutes County Comprehensive Plan to adopt limited revisions on remand from the Land Use Board of Appeals and superseding inconsistent portions of ordinance number 2024-007 only to the extent necessary. Ordinance number 2026-015. Okay.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 5:07:52
“OK, with that, any further questions or comments? Calling for the vote, Commissioner Adair? Yes. Commissioner DeBone? Yes. And Chair votes no. All right. Thank you. Now, on to item number 10, board discussion regarding Quays Energy's request for a five-year tax abatement through the, what does RREDZ stand for, the Rural Renewable Energy Development Zone program?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 5:11:44
“Are you going to get peppered with questions?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 5:14:33
“So the assets that I assume would be claimed for accelerating depreciation at the federal level We don't understand how that plays into the taxable value within Deschutes County.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 5:14:59
“So I mean that, you know, many renewable energy projects, you know, in terms of their federal tax obligations, they claim accelerated depreciation of the energy project that they've built. And so I'm trying to kind of reconcile how that works with, I mean, this is just sort of an extension of Commissioner DeBone's question.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 5:17:19
“And an additional question about year one, year two, year three, year four, year five. There's an opportunity for additional local requirements. When would those start? Do those start in year four when the extended tax abatement kicks in? Or can those start in year one? Or... Do those not start until after year five?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 5:19:10
“Any additional local requirements, those would kick in in year four and five.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 5:19:25
“Okay. John, were you just raising your hand? Did you want to add anything to that?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 5:22:25
“Thank you. Scott, so in our staff memo, you're showing the potential taxes owed if there's no abatement with a rate of 1.27826. I think that that's just our county general funds assessed.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 5:23:55
“12.7 would be the would be rate of all the districts.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 5:24:20
“And so within that 12.78, that for us, for the county, that includes the sheriff's office 911 and the county general fund?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 5:25:03
“Okay, so if that $12.78 covers DCSO, the Sheriff's Office 911, what was the third one I said? Sorry, the general fund. In addition to that, there would be tax abatement or tax liability to the school district?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 5:26:34
“Okay. And then after years four and five, the schools would get their full rate?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 5:26:41
“Okay. Okay. Okay. And just for me to double check, so the funds, both that school support fee and then in the long run, the full tax payment, that is then turned over to the common school fund. They send it to Salem and then they get the percentage back. Is that accurate?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 5:27:37
“It's still basically like 3% of whatever we send to Salem comes back for the Ben Lepine School District.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 5:29:04
“Now, there's some other credits. That's not even as good as getting 3% of it. Right. Okay. Boy, that's interesting.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 5:29:18
“Okay. Additional questions? I have a few more, but... Go ahead. Other counties around the state we have seen have early experiences with big renewable energy developers and then learn from that in subsequent projects and maybe ask for different things. So I want to clarify that the tax abatement deal that we are working on right now, this would be for the first 50 megawatts. a project obsidian that that that quays is working on and subsequent projects would entail a whole nother tax abatement negotiation like another package is that correct yeah they they for now the”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 5:31:22
“But if there was another 50 megawatts after Project Obsidian, then we would be back here doing some kind of a tax abatement negotiation. Yeah, that's correct. And my next question is, it sounded like Jen has some of this information already, but I was curious about, you know, other red zone projects in other counties and kind of what they had asked for in years four and five, you know, as local conditions or additional local requirements. And it sounded like you had at least one example that you were citing earlier.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 5:34:49
“And could you I was trying to write it down as you were going through those examples, starting with the first very first example, the first one said the first two were community service fees.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 5:35:49
“You know, I do wonder whether, you know, Business Oregon, you would hope would be a good source of information on this, but I'll circle back to CREA, Community Renewable Energy Association. I do wonder if through CREA we could get, you know, some of our fellow counties could share some information with us.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 5:37:09
“Yeah. Yeah. No, I think it would be really important to have... uh other taxing districts you know being be part of this decision-making process whether we have like a a special hearing where we give them a chance to to come and uh discuss it with us and you know but we've often seen that people aren't really interested in tax exemption type type type issues but uh you know it's their money um i i think that that would be really valuable Patricia?”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 5:38:01
“That's the portion of the royalty paid to the federal government.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026
- Play at 5:38:15
“No, some of it comes to the state and some of it comes to the county.”
Board of County Commissioners · Sep 2, 2026