Report: Intel's Oregon tax breaks topped $1.1 billion as Hillsboro schools gave up $891 million (Oct. 28)

Phil Harpster

54 minutes ago

6 min read

Large white Intel factory buildings and a construction crane behind a road and grass lawn in Hillsboro, Oregon, under a partly cloudy sky — Production buildings at Intel's Ronler Acres campus in Hillsboro, seen from Shute Road in 2018. Photo: Steve Morgan / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Quick Read

A Good Jobs First report says Intel's Strategic Investment Program property tax breaks in Hillsboro were worth $1.69 billion from 2015 to 2024, or $1.14 billion after the $552.4 million in fees Intel paid.
The report says the Hillsboro School District gave up $891.8 million in property tax revenue to the program from 2017 through 2025 and, unlike the city and county, got no state Gain Share money to offset it.
Intel laid off 4,478 Oregon workers in 2024 and 2025 while keeping the breaks, which carry no job requirement, the report says.
Because Oregon balances school funding statewide, a tax break in one district can cost schools everywhere, including Salem-Keizer.

Intel's Hillsboro campuses are where the company says it builds its most advanced chips. A new report from a tax watchdog puts a price on what Oregon has given up to keep them there.

The report, The Bleeding Edge: How the Public Pays the Costs of Intel's Semiconductor Manufacturing, comes from Good Jobs First, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that tracks economic development subsidies. It looks at Intel's long-running local property tax breaks in Hillsboro and in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, and says the two communities have lost more than $1.2 billion in tax revenue since 2015, with public schools taking the biggest hit. The Register reported on it Wednesday.

The Oregon numbers

In Oregon, Intel's main break is the state's Strategic Investment Program, or SIP. It lets local governments exempt big, capital-heavy projects from most property taxes for 15 to 30 years. In return, companies pay a Community Service Fee. Intel has used SIP since 1993 and has signed four agreements with Washington County. The latest, signed in 2014, runs 30 years, and Intel is the top SIP recipient in the state, the report says.

Using Oregon's annual SIP reports, Good Jobs First puts the key figures this way:

$1.69 billion: the value of Intel's SIP property tax abatements in Washington County from 2015 to 2024.
$552.4 million: the fees Intel paid local governments over the same span, less than a third of the abated value.
$1.14 billion: Intel's net tax break after those fees.
16,000: people Intel employs in the Hillsboro area across six active fabs, making it Washington County's top employer.

Why the schools take the biggest hit

The state tries to soften the blow through Gain Share, which sends local governments a slice of the state income tax tied to SIP projects. The report says the program is capped at $16 million per county, and that school districts are not eligible at all.

From 2017 through 2025, according to the report's review of local financial statements, the Hillsboro School District gave up $891.8 million to SIP abatements and received nothing back from Gain Share. The City of Hillsboro gave up $731.1 million and got back $55.4 million. Washington County gave up $377.1 million and got back $84 million. Those local figures cover all SIP agreements in the area, since the local reports do not break them out by company. Intel is the largest SIP recipient in Oregon.

In 2025 alone, the district lost more than $167 million to tax breaks, 82% of it from SIP, while collecting $145.5 million in property tax revenue, the report says. The district serves about 21,000 students and has no seat at the table when the deals are negotiated.

What it means outside Hillsboro

This is not only a Washington County issue. Oregon's school funding formula balances state and local money, so districts that collect less in local property tax get more from the State School Fund. That means a tax break in one district shrinks the pot for every district, the Oregon Capital Chronicle explained when Good Jobs First released an earlier statewide study in 2025. That covers Salem-Keizer and every other Willamette Valley district.

That 2025 study found Oregon school districts lost $275 million to property tax abatements in 2024, with Hillsboro losing the most, more than $143 million. It also noted one caveat that applies here: the corporate activity tax, which raises about $1 billion a year for schools, may recover some of that money, but there is no public data on what any single company pays.

Layoffs while the breaks continue

The report's sharpest point is about jobs. Intel's SIP agreements require it to keep investing in its own facilities, but they do not require it to keep or add workers. Intel laid off 4,478 Oregon workers in 2024 and 2025, according to WARN Act notices compiled by the group CHIPS Communities United, and the tax breaks continued, the report says.

Intel has also received federal CHIPS Act money and a $115 million grant from Oregon tied to that federal funding, the report notes. The Register points out the federal picture changed in 2025, when the Trump administration turned the remaining CHIPS Act grants plus Secure Enclave funding into an $8.9 billion deal for a 10% stake in Intel.

"Tax incentives are supposed to encourage investment, not provide companies with an ongoing stream of public support for decades," report author Kristan Wong Karinen, a Good Jobs First research analyst, said, according to The Register.

What Intel and the district say

Asked about the report, Intel told The Register: "Intel works closely with governments in the regions where we operate to leverage incentives that support leading-edge semiconductor R&D and manufacturing. We are not providing additional details beyond what's available in our annual reports."

The Hillsboro School District has described the tradeoff as complicated. "There is certainly a benefit to the local economy when these abatements serve as an incentive for employers to make investments they might not have otherwise made," chief financial officer Scott Harison told the Oregon Capital Chronicle in 2025. He added that it would help for districts to have more of a voice in abatement talks.

The tech that the money supports

Intel's own message this month is that Oregon matters more than ever. In an Oct. 21 post, Intel Foundry executive Naga Chandrasekaran called Oregon "the center of Intel's most advanced logic technology research, development and manufacturing." He said Intel was the first in the industry to install a commercial High NA EUV lithography machine, the newest generation of chipmaking tools, and the first to put one into high-volume manufacturing, both in Oregon.

Good Jobs First argues that is exactly why the breaks are hard to justify: Intel's Oregon campuses already have the workers, buildings and infrastructure the company needs, so the subsidies may be paying for decisions Intel would make anyway. "Continuing to invest in Rio Rancho and Hillsboro is a wise business decision for Intel," the report says.

What the report recommends

Don't treat tax breaks as the default tool for winning or keeping chip plants.
Leave the share of property tax that goes to schools out of any abatement.
Tie incentives to enforceable job and wage standards, and pay them only after a company delivers.
Publish what each company receives and whether it is meeting its terms.

The timing is pointed for Hillsboro voters. The district has a $430 million construction bond, Measure 34-355, on the Nov. 3 ballot, the Hillsboro News-Times reports.

Sources

Good Jobs First, The Bleeding Edge (full report PDF), October 2026

The Register, Oct. 28, 2026, including statements from Intel and Kristan Wong Karinen

Oregon Capital Chronicle, Aug. 21, 2025, on the statewide school abatement study

Intel Newsroom, Naga Chandrasekaran, Oct. 21, 2026

Hillsboro News-Times, Oct. 23, 2026, election guide

Cover photo: Steve Morgan / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0