After complaints from Google about Oregon's tax rules, the state yesterday enacted a bill to address Google's concerns about building a fiber network in Portland and five nearby municipalities.
The bill, signed yesterday by Gov. Kate Brown, "exempts 'gigabit' Internet service like Google's from a thorny property tax that dates to the 1970s and was originally intended for microwave towers," The Oregonian reported. Until the change, there was "an unusual Oregon tax methodology that values companies based—in part—on 'intangible' assets such as the value of their brands. For huge companies like Google, that might have added tens of millions of dollars to their annual property tax bill."
Oregon's first attempt to change the rule backfired, when Google told lawmakers that proposed legislation would only provide relief temporarily and that "after a certain time period tax rates would return to approximately double what they are in other states." Lawmakers said they would change the bill to address Google's concerns, and they did.
Portland has approved a Google Fiber franchise "that exempts the company from some of the fees and service requirements Comcast faces" and "reworked transportation regulations to allow Google Fiber to put 200 utility cabinets along big city streets," The Oregonian article said.
Google Fiber is available in Kansas City, Austin, and Provo, Utah. Google has committed to building in five additional metro areas and still lists Portland as a "potential fiber city," along with three others that the company is considering.
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