President's Message

  June 2008

   This month I would like to talk about some of the rumblings from Bend City Hall. I know it seems like everything is about Bend, but as I have said before, “What happens in Bend soon happens in Redmond, Prineville and Madras.”

   There are two things I’d like to bring to your attention that could have a direct impact on our rentals in the city limits of Bend.

   The first is that the city is thinking of placing a bond levy on the November ballot to pay for the city buses. Of course, if this passes your property taxes will increase (how much we don’t yet know). Considering the current state of the economy, I personally don’t think it would pass, but you never know about these things.

   The second issue is that the City of Bend wants to raise domestic water fees. The city explains that the water billing would be more fair if you pay just for the water used rather than having a base fee and then adding usage on top of that. It all sounds good until you realize two things. First, the city is not going to allow their yearly budget to go down because all of a sudden people are conserving water to lower their water bills. Second, the city is also wanting to expand the sewer treatment plant to the tune of $12 million. In the past they would simply add to what the builders pay in “System Development Charges” (SDCs) on their building permits. Well, as we all know, that goose is no longer laying golden eggs. (You can only squeeze a goose for so long before the goose says that’s enough!)

   So according to a chart in the Bulletin, some of our water bills could actually double in this “more fair system.” As some of you might have read, I was quoted in the article explaining how, in the City of Bend, you now can have only one water meter per tax lot. Which means those of us who have multiplexes can’t break out and bill for water separately to each tenant. I also told the reporter that any increase in my water bill would be passed on to the tenant, just as a property tax increase from a levy would be passed along as well.

   As all you members know, rents have not increased much over the last several years. It would be a shame if the market allowed us to raise rents, but only enough to pay for more fees and taxes. I encourage all of you to watch these issues as they come up, because they will affect all of our properties and all of our tenants.

See you next month!
Terry Luelling