Amazon operates enormous data centers in Morrow County and wants to build six more. It’s seeking tax breaks that would cover five of them. Dave Killen / The Oregonian
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Dear Governor Kotek; I have been posting on your Facebook ideas how the J.R. Tolkien Legends can come to Oregon, and Oregon be seen as a co-owner of a Literary and Artistic Genealogy and Legacy that I have come to own in so many amazing ways. I am seventy-six years of age, and will not live forever. However, my Family Legend will. How do I make the State of Oregon Heir to my visions and work. I have worked with the homeless and would like us to find a way that any monies realized from this Literary Estate, can go for low-cost housing for the homeless. Will this housing be on a money-making real estate market – eventually? Has a new way to make investments in housing the homeless yet to be discovered?
I just read an article that suggests there was unethical business practices in Amazon securing a billion dollar tax free haven in Marrow. This dovetails nicely with the La Mota ethics scandal. I applaud the resignation of Fagan and the search for new Ethical Frontiers. This is a huge giveaway, not unlike the two hundred million you obtained to help the homeless. Is Uncle Sam getting his fair share? The Republican’ are refusing to raise the debt ceiling unless Biden makes drastic cuts. Howmany other giant corporations are not paying their fair share?.
On my blog, Royal Rosamond Press, you will see me dressed as Uncle Samaclaus, the beloved Grandfather of All Government Giveaway Programs. This pic was taken at the second Eugene Occupy. I have a scheme on how I can be Grandfathered in-to the Amazon Giveaway Bonanza! I was once homeless, but thanks to SHIPS, I ended my chronic homelessness. I got sober at Serenity Lane thirty six years ago, and have been seeing a therapist for three years. I am YOUR SUCCESS STORY! However the woman nest door has huge sub-woofers, and for four months has practiced ‘Acoustic Violence ‘ on me and my Service Cat, Classy. I write about twelve hours a day on my blog that may be the largest in the world. I need Peace and Quiet. My lack of sleep is destroying my health. I get SS1 because I suffer from PTSD.
On my blog you will see the Amazon Fulfilment plant. I want a thousand foot appartment cut in the corner of it – overlooking the Columbia!. I will live here – rent free! I will get Amazon healthcare and a thousand a month. I want a small electric car to go shopping. In an emergency, a Amazon helicopter will fly me off the roof to the nearest hospital. Also, I want Amazon to purchase the old power plant and turn it into a Guild and Museum for Fantasy Authors. There will be limited residency. Perhaps solar panels could fill the large arias, and The Guild could sell it excess electricity.
Governor, I hope that being upfront is helpful in you considering my proposal and the needs of the State of Oregon. I am kin to Christopher Lee who played Saruman. We do not want Oregon’s Literary Legacy and Windfall to fall into the wrong hands. The two towers you see on the old plant, and the electrical devices, can be used to do – evil! I have a daughter, but she keeps going over to the dark side. In a couple of days I will write you and ask for moneys to go to England to attend the showing of a woman’s paintings. She lived over a hundred years. This journey will secure for Oregon – a Grail Ring!
Oh, by the way, I ran for Governor as a Republican, and voted for you!
Sicenerly
John Presco
Amazon doesn’t actually have the rights to The Silmarillion. This means the series will be based on The Appendices at the end of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Which, admittedly, does overlap in stories between the two books, but if it is mentioned in The Silmarillion and not in the Appendices, it is off-limits. And this has to do with the rights from the Tolkien Estate and from J.R.R. Tolkien himself.
Tolkien had never wanted to sell the rights to his books to the movie companies, but he was forced to eventually for the money in the 1970s to Saul Zaentz, and the animated Rankin and Bass productions of The Hobbit and Ralph Bakshi’s The Lord of the Rings (among a few other small budget films) were made. But those were the only rights that were sold. Even for Peter Jackson, he only had the rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. So, for example, when Radagast the Brown was introduced in Jackson’s Hobbit movies, he had to be very careful with not saying that Tolkien had mentioned there were other wizards in Middle Earth (there are, in fact, a few more mentioned in other works) because he didn’t have the rights to it.
McKay and Payne might have a little more leeway due to the Tolkien Estate being involved in the project, but we can probably expect not to see significant life events in Middle Earth-like the Fall of Gondolin, as described in depth in The Silmarillion or anything else from Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales.
https://wkmi.com/the-abandoned-morrow-power-plant-is-now-for-sale/
Amazon seeks tax breaks for 5 new data centers, worth $12 billion, in remote Oregon county
- Updated: Sep. 01, 2022, 1:32 p.m.|
- Published: May. 05, 2022, 6:08 a.m.
By
Amazon plans to build at least five new data centers along the Columbia River in remote Morrow County, a nearly $12 billion project that would more than double the scale of the company’s operations in the region.
The undertaking represents one of the largest capital projects in Oregon history — in one of the state’s smallest communities. Morrow County has just about 12,000 residents.
The deal could add hundreds of jobs and fill regional tax coffers in the county, 160 miles east of Portland. Amazon is already the county’s largest taxpayer by far, accounting for a third of all property tax revenue due to four large data centers it built over the past several years.
Most of the data centers’ value is exempt from local taxation, though, so Amazon saves far more than it pays. The company secured tax breaks in Morrow County worth $161 million over the past five years – $47 million in just the last year.
And before proceeding with its next project, Amazon wants a new package of tax breaks that would save the company hundreds of millions of dollars more over the next 15 years. That’s generating fresh scrutiny in the county and its largest city, Boardman, over whether Amazon is paying its fair share.
And it leaves officials in Morrow County and Boardman with a conundrum: They would like the billions of dollars in new spending from Amazon, but how does a tiny county in eastern Oregon negotiate a fair deal with a company worth $1.3 trillion? How can they secure the new data centers without giving away too much?
“That’s going to be a tough give and take,” said Greg Sweek, a former county assessor who now manages the local enterprise zone program that governs Amazon’s local taxes. He said county has to balance how much to seek from the company against the risk that Amazon bolts for neighboring Umatilla County, where it also has data centers, or to the nearby Tri-Cities in Washington.
“There’s a monetary amount for Amazon that they’re looking at,” Sweek said, “and I don’t know what that is.”
Data centers come to rural Oregon for cheap land, ample water and relatively inexpensive electricity, essential for powering and cooling all those computers. The Umatilla Electric Cooperative reports that industrial power consumption is up 266% since 2016.
Most of all, though, the tech companies come for the low taxes.
Oregon has some of the nation’s most valuable industrial tax breaks through a program that dates to 1985, when big corporate investments were measured in the millions rather than the billions of dollars.
The state’s enterprise zone program places no limits on how much local governments can give away and provides small communities with no assistance in their negotiations with the companies seeking tax breaks.
In the internet age, Amazon and other tech giants – among them Apple, Facebook and Google – have capitalized on the programs to secure tax breaks from small towns across eastern and central Oregon.
They essentially pit small Oregon towns against one another in search of the biggest exemptions, reaping tens of millions of dollars apiece through deals that exempt their pricey computers from the local property taxes other businesses pay.
The small city of Prineville, northeast of Bend, is home to large Facebook and Apple data centers, each of which receive large tax exemptions. The community has just agreed to a new package of tax breaks for a data hosting company called EdgeConnex. The deal gives the Virginia-based company 75% off its property taxes and puts a cap on the maximum it could pay.
Data centers consist mostly of cavernous, dark chambers with rows upon rows of humming computers. They’re cared for by elaborate cooling systems and a relatively small number of employees, consisting primarily of technicians and security guards.
Still, these server farms provide an enormous windfall in small communities with few economic alternatives. Amazon says its data centers employ 461 people in Morrow County, paying an average wage around $75,000 annually. That’s $20,000 above the county’s median household income.
Amazon Web Services, the Seattle company’s data center group, said in a statement that it contributes economically to Morrow County, supports local science education and is making technical advances to reduce electricity consumption and to conserve water.
And while Amazon enjoys outsized tax breaks, some of its initial investments in Morrow County only qualified for short-term tax breaks that have now expired. The company paid $22 million in taxes and fees in 2020 alone and triple that sum over the preceding decade.
“AWS is proud of the work we are doing in Oregon,” the company said. “Since 2011, we have invested over $15 billion, contributed more than $66 million in tax and fee payments to the local community, and supported the development of 2,000 jobs.”
The job tally includes jobs indirectly supported by Amazon’s spending.
Such benefits accrue to a handful of Oregon communities, primarily in or near Boardman, Hermiston, Prineville and The Dalles. But the state has hundreds of small towns, most of which are not reaping anything from the data center industry.
Public officials in some of the communities that have secured these server farms are fierce defenders of their dealmaking. Sometimes, the local cities and counties don’t even hire an attorney to help them negotiate with the Silicon Valley tech giants.
But others are beginning to express some skepticism.
Wasco County and The Dalles negotiated a new tax break with Google last year that substantially increases what the company would pay on new data centers. And in Morrow County, public officials are discussing how a new tax deal for Amazon would play with their constituents.
Amazon opened its first data center in Morrow County about a decade ago. Its growth has accelerated in recent years and it now has four large facilities, mostly at the Port of Morrow. The port is also home to large food processor, including a massive Tillamook Creamery operation, and a major Portland General Electric gas-fired power plant.
So data centers have grown and diversified the region’s industrial economy while helping fill city and county tax coffers. But Amazon’s new proposal comes amid heated debate over a $138 million school bond on this month’s ballot in Morrow County. The money would renovate and expand local schools.
While some of Amazon’s existing data centers would be subject to taxes to finance the bond, most of the company’s property is exempt. And that’s making the school bond a tough sell among some in the community, who question why Amazon gets a discount and residents don’t.
Amazon has declined to release details of its latest tax break proposal and officials in Morrow County and Boardman haven’t responded to a public records request seeking a copy of the document.
At a meeting last week, Morrow County Commissioner Melissa Lindsay suggested local governments hire an expert to help them evaluate Amazon’s latest request. And she suggested they have a lawyer on hand at their next meeting.
“That hasn’t been past practice,” replied Sweek, the enterprise zone manager. “Attorneys are expensive.”
“Yeah, well, so are mistakes,” Lindsay replied. “And we’ve made some.”
You could have this huge property for a little over $1.4 Million dollars. You won’t believe what’s inside.
You may have passed by Morrow Pond while driving down I-94. On the far West end of the pond is where you’ll find a giant, old abandoned building with two large silos. That is the old Morrow Power Plant. This building has been abandoned since the 1980’s. Now it’s for sale for a whopping $1,440,000 listed by Loren Souers at Kalamazoo Commercial Real Estate. Check out the recently taken photos below.
https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.572.0_en.html#goog_1362486759
Tolkien Influenced by Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
Posted on December 2, 2011 by Royal Rosamond Press
Christine Rosamond Benton could own the title New Pre-Raphaelite Artist, and my family could be carrying on a renowned creative tradition, but the Non-Artists have had their day, and the Beauty that has been awoken, has been ravaged, forsaken, and put out in the street. The destructive Orcs, and gallery gargoyles, have had a field day, and now guzzle down their rancid brew, and vomit up a doomsday.
Princess Rosamond is Sleeping Beauty, her kingdom the subject of Edward Burnes-Jones the Pre-Raphaelite who inspired Tolkien’s Tale of the Ring. So did all the Brothers.
Jon Presco
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Raphaelite_Brotherhood
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery has a world-renowned collection of works by Burne-Jones and the Pre-Raphaelites that, some claim, strongly influenced the young J.R.R. Tolkien,[10] who would later go on to write his novels, such as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, with their influence taken from the same mythological scenes portrayed by the Pre-Raphaelites.
Scene 1: The Briar Rose: The Briar Wood
In the original study for The Briar Wood some of the knights appear to be more feminine than masculine. Burne-Jones modelled the knights from women: Jane Morris, Georgiana (his wife), and Maria Zambaco, the Greek beauty who later became his paramour.
Morris and Co. designs often were created for one medium and then adapted and modified for another. Edward Burne-Jones designed a set of nine two-tile Sleeping Beauty panels for a bedroom fireplace at ‘The Hill’, the home of painter Myles Birket Foster in the 1860s.
Ten years later, he developed a series of three small paintings, and then four larger works that he worked on intermittently from 1870 to 1890. The series was displayed with verses by William Morris. Unlike the fairy tale tales painted for ‘The Hill’, the Briar Rose series does not tell a sequential story but shows the sleepers as seen by the prince as he makes his way through the castle to The Rose Bower.
Related products: The fairy
The fateful slumber floats and flows
About the tangle of the rose.
But lo the fated hand and heart
To rend the slumberous curse apart.
The threat of war, the hope of peace
The Kingdom’s peril and increase.
Sleep on, and bide the latter day
When fate shall take her chains away.
The maiden pleasance of the land
Knoweth no stir of voice or hand,
No cup the sleeping waters fill,
The restless shuttle lieth still.
~William Morris
Here lies the hoarded love the key
To all the treasure that shall be.
Come, fated hand, the gift to take
And smite the sleeping world awake.
William Morris
Capturing Beauty
Part One
‘Capturing Beauties Rose’
Jon Presco
Copyright 2004
“Many men say that there is nothing in dreams but fables and lies,
but one may have dreams which are not decietful, whose import becomes
quite clear afterward.”
Thus begins the ‘Romaunt of the Rose’ by Chaucer, that ends thus…
“The ending of the tale you see
The Lover draws anigh the tree,
And takes the branch, and takes the rose,
That love and he so dearly chose.”
Rosamond Press 