Ex-Blazer Rasheed Wallace, City of Portland Highlight Property Tax Delinquents

List includes Ross Island Sand and Gravel, owned by Portland Tribune publisher Robert Pamplin.

The Multnomah County Assessor's office released its list of the top 25 property tax delinquents after the passage of the May 15 deadline for final payment for 2015 taxes.

The largest deadbeat on the list is the City of Portland, which the assessor says owes $2.041 million in taxes on 140 acres that used to be part of the Riverview Cemetery in Southwest Portland. With interest, which accrues at a painful 16 percent a year, the county says the city owes $3.46 million on the property.

The city bought the property in 2012 to preserve it as green space but state law says when property that had been exempt from property taxes because it served as a cemetery is no longer a burial ground, the new owner owes 10 years in back taxes. The issue remains a matter of dispute between the city and the county.

Two other familiar names are once again on the list: one is the site of the Thunderbird Hotel, which burned to the ground in 2012. The property, owned by a company controlled by Howard Dietrich, is $640,000 in arrears and owes another $135,000 in interest, for a total of $775,000.

A second regular on the list is Ross Island Sand & Gravel Co., owned by Robert Pamplin, Jr. publisher of the Portland Tribune and a couple dozen community newspapers. Ross Island owes $322,000 in current taxes and another $85,000 in interest for a total of $407,000.

One new name on the list, Evraz, Inc., the Portland-based steel company owed $1.15 million. A company spokesman told WW the company has sent in a payment but the county had not received payment as of Friday morning.

Updated on May 31 at 9:30: County spokesman Dave Austin says the county received Evraz's payment on May 31 and the company is now paid in full.

Perhaps the best-known name on the list belongs to former Portland Trail Blazer Rasheed Wallace, who played here from 1996 through 2003. Wallace went on to play for three other teams, most notably the Detroit Pistons, with whom he won an NBA championship. But he never sold his Dunthorpe home. He's bounced on and off the property tax delinquency list over the years but unlike many ex-NBA players, he appears to be in strong financial shape. A 2015 Detroit News article about his pending divorce from his wife, Fatima, pegged his net worth at $75 million.

Wallace owes $96,000 on his home—about two years of taxes on the property, which is assessed at $2.8 million—and $13,000 in interest for a total of $109,000.

The complete list of the top 25 delinquents is here.

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