The Real Story – A Column
It has been a busy and hectic 2026 for the Hillsboro Herald and me personally. Today, I was featured on the Oregon Center for Public Policy podcast, Policy For The People. Data Centers in Oregon, and especially in Hillsboro, have been at the top of the news everywhere. This was a complete honor for me personally, as this is a group I hold in high regard, and I think many informed Oregonians agree with me. Juan Carlos Ordonez is the host and is smart, inquisitive, and thorough. Apparently, they (OCCP) have monitored the work we have done here at the Herald on this topic- 60 plus stories in the last 5 years. From the at-risk power grid to the tax giveaways, we covered it all. And one thing kept coming up – what is in it for us? When I ask that question, I get crickets or meek answers. That is not good. That is not what we need. And that is certainly not leadership.
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Here is an excerpt –
“I think all of us that are learning more about this, especially with these cables, are now learning that we didn’t need to do that at all (offer 5 years or more of free property taxes). They were coming here either way. And we’ve been very foolish.And this will be a discussion that the state will have is and it’s happening right now. So, for Hillsboro, the argument is that if we didn’t give them the tax credit, they wouldn’t have come, and then we wouldn’t have these future revenues. That is false.
Right? The carrot was put out, they bit on it. They bit the bait. They’re here. I don’t think we had to do that. They were coming either way.”
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My work here continues, every day and every night.
What’s Next?
- The Washington County Tax Appraiser in charge of Data Centers Enterprise Zone approvals seems to be refusing to meet with us or talk to us regarding the Enterprise Zone, and who is getting the benefits and how much they are getting. We have been going on for one month to get some questions answered and access to the data. We will keep trying- if he is unwilling to answer these questions, we will come to all of you for help to have this public servant respond to a request for public information.
- No one at the City, County, or State seems to have a complete list of the Data Centers here in Hillsboro, let alone in the State of Oregon. That is also a huge problem. That too will not stand.
- The PGE Power grid in Hillsboro and Washington County seems to be maxed out, or close to it. No one I have asked can confirm which sources informed the Herald of this situation. That could mean catastrophe, and we will push for answers from PGE, the County, the State, and the industry. So far, no answers are being offered.
In the past two months, I have:
- Been interviewed and featured in videos by National Media and political powerhouse More Perfect Union–
- Been interviewed by Good Jobs First out of Washington DC on Data Centers and their impacts.
- Testified on Senate Bill 1586 and House Bill 4084 and submitted written testimony into the record.
- Participated in a one-to-one fact-finding session with members of Governor Kotek’s Data Center Advisory Committee.
- Led and or participated in 5 separate tours of Hillsboro’s Data Center Alley and associated power plants and BESS Battery projects with members of the Oregon State House of Representatives, Oregon State Senate, METRO, Tax Fairness Oregon, Save Helvetia, Stop The Sprawl, 1000 Friends of Oregon, Oregon Ag Trust, and other organizations and individuals.
Just as important, I have presented to a number of groups on the matter of Data Centers, and communicated with dozens and dozens of great minds, a great passion who live and work here in Hillsboro and Washington County. We will get equity and fair treatment for our people and our schools. People are suffering and we are going without at the same time Private Equity Firms and Billionaires continue to fleece our community. The time for that to end is now.
This is all headed to the creation of our own task force, of the people by the people, because our City and County will not create one. We will have the best people and the most passionate people. Please email me at hillsboroherald@gmail.com if you want to be involved.
The work continues, and we must all fight on for a better Oregon – and it is time for the “foolishness” to end. Oregon demands and deserves better!
please keep at it, i’ve lived in Hillsboro since it only had 12,000 folks living here. i’ve long felt that the city of Hillsboro has sold it soul for tax breaks for anyone but the folks that live here!
We are sure trying my friend – I think that is about the same as me- from the 1960s on-
Great work on this! I wish we could also make them put solar panels on their roofs and over their parking lots. Their energy demand is already ruining a lot of quality EFU land, wildlife corridors and habitat, and it’s set to significantly increase. I hope someday we can make whatever you guys are able to implement throughout the whole state.
I LOVE the Solar Roof Requirement – we should make them do that- BUT- their roofs are covered with massive cooling units. Great idea- there has to be a way!
Well, well… now you can run AI LLMs locally on your desktop or laptop computer:
https://lmstudio.ai/
This is for both personal and enterprise use.
For those of you who don’t know, this means that you can run an LLM similar to ChatGPT privately on your computer, without being connected to the Internet and without being tracked or having the model trained on your prompts.
In other words, large AI data centers are already obsolete.