After a long day spent at the Columbia County courthouse, and a phone conversation with Mr. Olsen City Manager of Rainier, much to my dismay I am not any closer to finding out the truth about the REDCO boondoggle.

My letters concerning USG, REDCO, and the City of Rainier Boondoggle spirited a somewhat sharp call from the City Manager of Rainier, Mr. Olsen (the City Manager) was not happy with my last weeks Tammy's' Take. (Or the St. Helens Up- Date in general).  Mr. Olsen says that he does not read Bill Eagles web page (even though he quoted from it).  I support freedom of speech, media and other people's views whether or not they are the same as mine. The Up- Date was just another disagreement that we shared.

Mr. Olsen informed me that someone had sent him a copy of my letter, and my information was not correct, I asked Mr. Olsen to please elaborate. He told me that the Columbia County Assessor was not giving me the correct numbers concerning USG property taxes. He did not like the implication that what REDCO and the City of Rainier were trying to do, may be possibly illegal, and that I was beating the issue with a stick.

Could it be that Mr. Olsen protest too much?  I informed Mr. Olsen of a prior conversation I had where I had spoken quite extensively with the State of Oregon's Internal Revenue Office.   The man that I spoke with seemed to think that REDCO's attempt to take back monies allocated to the other districts "interesting" and questioned the legality of this tax revenue payback,

I referred to a document or spreadsheet given to me by County Counsel, Mr. Olsen acknowledge the document. Mr. Olsen said that he had written the document.  What I found amusing is on that very same day I questioned Commissioner Hyde about the document and Commissioner Hyde said he wrote the document. Who am I to believe?

I spoke to the County Assessor and asked the question, if the payback scheme is found to be illegal and a special levy is placed on the residents of the City of Rainier and urban renewal areas of Rainier, would the cost be approximately $3.00 per thousand?

The answer that I was given was "yes."

I ask if the the buildings were valued at $372,00.00?

The answer was "yes"

I asked if USG tax liability on the buildings were approximately $4,000.00?

The answer given was "yes".

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