Property Tax Scenario Lab
The Property Tax Scenario Lab is a specialized simulation tool designed by the Multnomah County Budget Office to bring transparency and public engagement to Oregon's unique tax landscape. While our property tax system is complex, defined by constitutional limits from Measure 5 and Measure 50, this tool helps policymakers, researchers, and the public engage with it. It enables you to model potential policy changes and changes to the Oregon Property Tax Structure, and visualize their financial consequences for taxing districts and neighborhoods.
How It Works To ensure precise analysis, you will see two calculations running side-by-side. The "Control" establishes a baseline reflecting current policies and default growth. The "Scenario" reflects your adjustments. This dual approach isolates the direct impact of your choices, allowing you to quantify specific impacts against a fair, time-adjusted comparison.
Key Features & Capabilities You can manipulate various data points to test different policy outcomes:
- Forecast the Future: Select a specific future tax year for your simulation.
- Adjust Growth Assumptions: Define custom annual growth rates for Real Market Value (RMV) and Maximum Assessed Value (MAV).
- Change the Rules: Experiment with changes to how Assessed Value (AV) is calculated, or how Compression works.
- Modify Tax Rates: Simulate the financial impact of adding, removing, or altering new levies and permanent rates.
- Analyze Compression (Tax Limits): Observe how your scenarios trigger or relieve the constitutional limits (Measure 5 compression) that cap how much a property can be taxed.
Important Note on Data & Usage This tool is for modeling and simulation purposes only. The results are "what-if" scenarios based entirely on the assumptions and growth rates you define. Because economic factors and local market dynamics are highly unpredictable, these results should be viewed as analytical insights rather than guaranteed predictions of future tax outcomes.
Access the Multnomah County Property Tax Scenario Lab