Agenda Item - 2024-04-02 - Number 05.0 - Written Public Comment - Michele Gila 5.0
P M R
PORTLAND METROPOLITAN
ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®
April 2, 2024
To: Lake Oswego Mayor,City Council, and Planning Commission
RE:Testimony Regarding Consideration of CET Proposal and Housing Production Strategy
Mayor Buck, City Councilors, and Planning Commissioners:
I am writing on behalf of Portland Metropolitan Association of Realtors®to express our opposition
to Lake Oswego's consideration of a Construction Excise Tax(CET) as part of its Housing Production
Strategy.Approval of this strategy would amount to a new tax on housing.
While we support the city's desire to see new investments in affordable housing, a new CET is not the
way to go about it.This would only make it more expensive to build new homes in Lake Oswego,
negatively impacting affordability and creating new barriers for first-time homebuyers.This is
counterproductive to meeting Governor Kotek's laudable housing production goals for the state.
Also, it should be noted that the Metro region already has a robust CET tax on all new construction
that's been in place since 2007.This generates over$3.5M annually in revenue for Metro,yet
regularly goes unallocated without municipal interest and capacity in expanding residential growth
areas.
We would encourage Lake Oswego to look closely at tax exemption programs to increase affordable
housing construction.The City of Portland's active HOLTE/MULTE property tax exemption programs are
great examples of how a city can incentivize the market to produce quality affordable housing (up to
120%AMI)without making it more costly to build other types of housing.
While we can appreciate that some taxing districts may not immediately realize the benefits of new
development spurred on by tax abatement incentives, we do not believe that this alone should stop the
city from considering them.The long-term financial viability of exemptions and the growth in economic
activity they generate (as opposed to continued vacancy of empty, underutilized lots)will ensure
school districts, fire, medical, and police services are in fact more stable than otherwise would be the
case.
Thank you for your time, consideration, and commitment to the betterment of Lake Oswego and its
esidents.
Michele Gila
Director of Realtor°Advocacy
150 SW HARRISON ST,SUITE 200•PORTLAND,OR 97201 .503-288-6595•PMAR.ORG