Department of Forestry Headed for
Cuts
Last week it was the State Forest
program that felt the shock of 40 layoff notices
from State Forester Marvin Brown. The
Co-Chair's budget sends shock waves through the
Private Lands program with a 50% budget cut when
timber harvest tax reductions are added to the 15%
cut the budget-writers propose.
OSWA members' testimony to the Ways
& Means Committee was instrumental in helping
the ODF's budget maintain the even drastically
reduced level proposed. As the legislature
further revises budget proposals family forest
landowners will be asked to come to the Capitol in
support of fire and forest protection
funds.
The Department of Forestry's
Fire Program avoided massive cuts through fund
shifts and increasing the share of firefighting
costs that forest landowners pay. Oregon is
the only state to require private forest
landowners to contribute to fire costs. In
addition to increasing landowners share from
50-50% to 55-45%, the new budget allocates all of
the program's administrative costs to the pool of
expenses to be split.
The
administrative costs were proposed to be added in
2007, but budget writers settled on direction to
the ODF to analyze the "in-kind" services forest
landowners provide. These in-kind services
were previously considered to be in exchange for
sharing the fire program's administrative
costs. The ODF analysis should that although
private landowners provided less support during
the low fire years of 2007 and 2008, private
landowners have millions of dollars of
firefighting resources available should the need
arise.
Expect more work on the ODF's
budget in the next five weeks as the legislature
has to pass a bill to increase landowners' share
of fire costs from $10 million to the current
biennium level of $15 million. Landowners
will use the $5 million increase to negotiate for
a 50-50% split of fire costs and recognition of
landowner provided in-kind services as a tradeoff
for fire program administrative
costs.
Climate Change
Negotiations Continue
A coalition of
business, industry, labor, homebuilders and
utilities put the finishing touches on a
legislative alternative to the current version of
SB 80. Governor Kulongoski asked PaciCorp
and Portland General Electric to try to craft
compromise carbon emission reduction
proposal.
Meanwhile, HB 2186
was heard for the first time in the Senate after
passing the House in a close vote. A parade
of witnesses either praised or blasted the bill
that gives new authority to the Department of
Environmental Quality to regulate the
transportation sector. Truck idling limits,
low carbon fuel, low resistance tires and
aerodynamic retrofitted trucks are some of the
restrictions that passage of HB 2186 may
bring.
Below is a link to an article
in the Salem Statesman Journal concerning the
impact the economy is having on environmental
legislation.
Environmental legislation takes
back seat | StatesmanJournal.com | Statesman
Journal For the report on OSWA
legislation, click on:
OSWA Bill
TrackerLogin: OSWA; Password:
session09
For more legislative
information, click on:
Conkling
Fiskum & McCormick Insider
Online.
