To the Editor:

There are eight taxing districts in Grant County.

By allowing the city of John Day to siphon off the tax dollars for their urban renewal program, does this meet the mission statement of those taxing districts?

I wonder if the taxing district could be sued for spending money outside the scope of the taxing district’s mission.

I got the tax information in the examples below from the Grant County Assessor’s Office.

In this example, in 2022 the Blue Mountain Hospital District gave $11,476.62 to the city of John Day for its urban renewal program. Is giving hospital district tax dollars to people for building homes a part of the hospital’s mission?

Here is another example: In 2022 the ESD gave $20, 2151.81 to the city of John Day for urban renewal. This is tax money to educate our children in all of Grant County.

I think that all of the taxpayers in Grant County in all of these districts should be very upset with John Day taking their tax money to give to people to build a house in John Day.

I also think that the taxpayers in these districts should have been able to vote on whether they wanted to give their tax money to John Day for urban renewal.

Thanks, Canyon City, Prairie City, Mt. Vernon, Dayville, Monument and Long Creek, for giving your tax dollars for John Day’s urban renewal program.

Tom Sutton

John Day