Oregon Public Broadcasting

The city of Sisters is in the middle of hard times,  despite its well-maintained country-western theme.

Thursday city officials pitched the idea of encouraging business development with tax incentives.

Central Oregon correspondent Ethan Lindsey reports.

The 1200 person city of Sisters is too small to apply to the state for an economic development zone.

So, Sisters officials proposed a joint zone with Redmond.

Redmond says its 20-year-old enterprise zone is one of the state’s most successful – creating 1700 jobs.

Lon Kellstrom is the mayor of Sisters.

He says Redmond officials gave some positive feedback to the idea.

Lon Kellstrom: “Number one, being a good neighbor. Number two, when they apply to the state, they can say, ‘We want to partner with Sisters, a severely-distressed economy, and it makes their application look a little better.”

Enterprise zones work by giving tax breaks to companies that invest $50,000 in a region.

Sisters will consult with other local tax agencies. They will lose some initial tax revenue if the zone is approved.