Property Tax Alert–Oregon

February 2005

An amendment to the applicable statute authorized the Department to assess property that was owned by out of state utilities company, but was omitted from any assessment roll for a year not exceeding five years prior to the last certified roll. It was argued that the amendment did not contain an express retroactive effective date and, therefore, should have been applied prospectively. The law allows property to be added without regard to the reason for the omission. The taxpayers' argument that the Department was precluded from assessing any property that it knew existed but chose not to assess was rejected because the statute specified that any omitted property may be added to the roll.

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