Under Adair, Deschutes County taxes, budget have skyrocketed
She now seeks to represent Oregon's 5th District in Congress
During her time on the Deschutes County Commission, Patti Adair helped usher in higher taxes and higher county budgets.
Now, Adair seeks a seat representing Oregon’s 5th District in Congress. She’s running against Jonathan Lockwood in the Republican Primary, which is May 19.
When she first ran for Deschutes County Commission in 2018, Adair said county property taxes were too high. But Adair also said the commission’s recent vote to lower property taxes by $0.03 per $1,000 wouldn’t do much to save residents money.
“She said she’d like to focus on keeping county taxes low and recognizing that the county’s portion makes up a portion of the taxes residents must pay,” The Bulletin reported of Adair.
According to World Population Review, Deschutes County currently has the fifth-highest median property taxes among all 36 counties in Oregon. And Ownwell says, based on a median home value of $648,885, the annual Deschutes County property tax bill in 2026 is $3,985. That compares to the national median property tax bill of $2,400.
In other words, Deschutes County’s median property tax bill is 66 percent higher than the national median property tax bill.
In fiscal year 2019-2020, Deschutes County ranked 6th of Oregon’s 36 counties in terms of total property taxes imposed. That same year, the Deschutes County Commission adopted a total budget, including service districts, of $502,642,110, with an operating budget of $227,788,787.
The county’s total adopted budget, including service districts, for fiscal year 2025-2026 was $766.4 million, with an operating budget of $430.7 million. This represented increases of 52.5 percent for the total budget and 89.1 percent for the operating budget over the period in which Adair has sat on the Deschutes County Commission.
In May 2022, Adair voted in favor of fellow commissioner Phil Chang’s proposed Deschutes County property tax increase to support general operations. The tax had been reduced by a previous commission. Ultimately, the increase failed to pass. But the Deschutes County Budget Committee, which includes the Deschutes County Commission and was chaired by Adair, did adopt a fiscal year 2023 budget that included a property tax increase for the sheriff’s rural law enforcement district. It’s also worth noting that Chang was elected as a Democrat in 2020 before a ballot measure removed party affiliation from local elections.
In June 2023, Adair and the commission voted for and passed a property tax increase for rural county residents while giving themselves raises. Adair defended both the tax increase and the increase in commissioner salaries,
“I definitely didn’t do the job for the money,” Adair said. “I work really hard at my job.”
She also said the tax hike was necessary because of high interest rates and decreased revenues in county departments.
And in a March 2024 opinion piece, The Source editorial board called out Adair and fellow Commissioner Tony DeBone for voting to move a new Adult Parole and Probation home to a different location and selling the property following public outcry but without considering the fiscal impacts of the decision. That past December, the commission had unanimously voted to approve the facility at the original location.
“Elected officials have the responsibility to be good stewards of our tax dollars,” The Source editorial board wrote. “To that end, it is imperative that they understand the impacts of their decisions fully before they make a vote.
“It is also their responsibility as leaders — to not only listen to the concerns of neighbors (which may be valid), but also to the counsel of the experts among the County staff, who in this case advised that moving the facility would be a losing game.
“This is exactly how you lose qualified staff — and that, also, comes at a price that we all pay.”