Seven Glencoe High School students and recent graduates stood before the Hillsboro City Council on July 27 and told members their futures were being shortchanged by data center tax breaks that drain money from local schools.
Their testimony came during a special session where the council passed Resolution 2932, a 120-day moratorium halting all new data center and battery energy storage system development in the city.
The meeting, called with roughly 20 hours' notice after being announced Sunday, July 26, drew about 50 residents starting at 9 a.m.
The moratorium gives city staff time to study how much land, water, and power data centers have consumed and to draft stronger land-use rules. But for Hillsboro School District families, the bigger question is when any of this translates into classroom dollars.
$83.2 million in abated taxes
The numbers are stark. Washington County tax records show 12 data center operators hold $5.07 billion in exempted assessed value and received $83.2 million in abated property taxes for the 2025-26 tax year alone, according to Hillsboro Herald reporting published Saturday, July 25.
Those same companies paid just $17.7 million in actual property taxes on that property.
Oregon law requires data center companies receiving extended enterprise zone exemptions to pay a school support fee of 15 to 30 percent of abated taxes to the local school district. HSD's Board of Education, under Board Chair Mark Watson and Superintendent Travis Reiman, set that rate at 15 percent — the legal minimum — effective Monday, January 1, 2024.
The district has not collected a dime. In a written response to the Hillsboro Herald published July 25, HSD confirmed "none yet" have been billed or received, and none are legally owed.
House Bill 2009, passed in 2023, only applies to agreements signed on or after September 24, 2023, and fees won't come due until the 2027-28 tax year at the earliest.
Students spoke; district stayed quiet
The Glencoe students argued the council had taken too long to act and that unchecked data center expansion threatened their futures. The Hillsboro Herald, which covered the hearing, did not publish the students' names.
Dr. Tammy Carpenter, an HSD school board member and plaintiff in a June 2026 lawsuit challenging 17 Hillsboro enterprise zone applications, has been vocal on the school-funding connection.
In a June 22 press release announcing that lawsuit, Carpenter said: "I want the government to invest in schools, not data centers. Schools are closing and students are struggling."
No HSD spokesperson has publicly commented on Monday's moratorium vote or its implications for the district's budget.
What comes next
The moratorium blocks the city from accepting or processing new data center land-use applications for 120 days, expiring in late November 2026. Already-approved projects and pending applications filed before Monday are not affected.
Councilor Kipperlyn Sinclair, who first requested an emergency meeting on Friday, May 1, pushed through two amendments before the vote: expanding the moratorium's definition to explicitly cover AI computing facilities, and restricting "accessory use" loopholes that could allow data centers to be built as add-ons to small factories.
The Hillsboro Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on proposed data center development code amendments on Wednesday, August 26.
The City Council is scheduled to take up a first reading on Tuesday, September 15, with adoption possible as soon as Tuesday, October 6.
