How to get the State of Oregon to pay property taxes on your Lake O Mansion

The Oregonian offers this report on this program wherein the Oregon Department of Revenue pays the property tax for an elderly or disabled person in exchange for a promise to repay that money, at 6% interest, and a lien against the property.  In effect, this program allows elderly and disabled people to never pay their property taxes, and then when they die, the State can enforce the tax against the property.  The Oregonian's problem with it is that many houses in the program are worth over a million dollars, so if the owner cannot pay their property tax, they should sell their house, not force other taxpayers to foot the bill.

The other problem, touched upon the O is that the program is broke.  The 2009 fiscal report of the program shows that in 2009 for the first time the borrower repayments decreased below the program's expenditures, causing the cash account for the program to crater.  Obviously the trend is continuing into 2011 and the program is out of money.