New Plan Would Solve County Payments Impasse
Contact:
Steve Pedery, Oregon Wild: 503.283.6343 ext 212
Randi Spivak, Geos Institute: 310.779.4894
Local, state, and national groups unveil plan to replace federal subsidies without resorting to clear-cutting public lands
Eugene, OR — As Oregon county governments receive their last checks from federal taxpayers under the expired county payments program, a coalition of six local, state, and national conservation organizations today unveiled a balanced, three-pronged strategy to solve the looming county funding crunch. With uncertainty around Congress extending this important program, the groups are promoting a shared responsibility approach, where county governments, the State of Oregon, and the federal government would each take responsibility for resolving a portion of the problem.
Click here to see the 12-page Report and Executive Summary
This common-sense proposal stands in stark contrast to a vague plan being developed by Reps. Peter DeFazio, Kurt Schrader, and the House Republican leadership. They propose re-linking county funding to clear-cutting on public lands, and weakened endangered species and clean water protections.
The Shared Responsibility plan would restore county funding through:
• Administrative savings secured through the transfer of Bureau of Land Management forestlands to the U.S. Forest Service.
• A modest increase in the Oregon State Forest Products Harvest Tax, given the windfall from increases in log prices and booming exports to China.
• A small increase in local government property tax rates from existing but presently unused taxing authority.
• Increased ecological restoration that will create jobs while restoring forests and watersheds.
“The DeFazio bill is the wrong approach. We can’t clear-cut our way to prosperity,” observed Steve Pedery, Conservation Director of Oregon Wild. “There is a world of difference between the sustainable, restoration-based forest management that Oregonians support and this proposal re-linking county funding to clear-cutting and weakened environmental safeguards on our public lands.”
“This proposal will split the baby. It is based on failed policies of the past, that counties can log their way out of the problem,” said Randi Spivak, VP Government Affairs, Geos Institute. “Instead of effectively giving away public forests, there are better solutions that share the responsibility and are fair to national taxpayers, benefit the counties, clean water, salmon and wildlife.”
For decades, counties with O&C lands received funding based on the amount of timber harvested from these federal public lands. The epidemic of logging in the 1970s and 1980s inflated county budgets but also polluted thousands of miles of Oregon’s rivers and severely damaged fish and wildlife habitat. Strong public opposition finally brought an end to rampant clear-cutting in the 1990s – and the money going to counties from timber sales shrank. Congress cushioned the fall by instituting Secure Rural Schools legislation, first passed in 2000, to help transition the counties away from dependence on federal timber receipts. These county payments expired this January.
County governments have known that the expiration of payments from federal taxpayers was coming. Still, due to political opposition to tax increases and poor planning on the part of some county governments, many counties face insolvency in the coming year. Curry County in southwest Oregon faces the grimmest scenario in part because its residents pay the lowest property tax in the state. As the Shared Responsibility plan points out, if Curry and the other O&C counties were to pay their fair share (1/3) to replace county payments, proportionally the taxes on a median home in Curry County would have to rise $1.33/week—less than a cup of coffee.
The Shared Responsibility plan outlines three funding sources for the $110 million that the 18 O&C Counties have asked for. The proposal recognizes the need for county, state, and federal governments to provide stable county funding and a diversified economy without sacrificing the important financial and quality-of-life benefits that western Oregon forests provide. Current and former county commissioners have also expressed concern over re-linking county budgets to clear-cut logging on public lands. While not endorsers of the Shared Responsibility plan, here is what some of them had to say.
Pete Sorenson, long-time Lane County Commissioner: “Clean drinking water, fish and wildlife, and the natural amenities of our forests bring jobs and investment to Oregon. Grand plans for linking our funding to unsustainable logging only provide false hope to Lane and other counties.”
Peg Reagan, former Curry County commissioner and director of the Conservation Leaders Network: “With a slow housing market and limited demand for domestic timber, there is just no way that increased logging can match what counties were receiving from Secure Rural Schools payments. We need a balanced solution to help counties avoid bankruptcy – we can’t ask our forests to make the only sacrifice.”
Additional resources:
• Find a brief fact sheet on the proposed DeFazio logging trust plan here. http://www.oregonwild.org/oregon_forests/old_growth_protection/westside-forests/western-oregon-s-patchwork-public-lands/DeFazio_Logging_Plan_Fact_Sheet.pdf
• Curry County could make up its fair share (1/3) of lost Secure Rural Schools payments with a minor increase in property taxes comparable to an increase of $1.33 a week for a median priced home. Even at this increased rate, Curry County taxpayers would still pay approximately half of the Multnomah County property tax rate.
Facts and Figures:
• Josephine County’s property tax rate is 54% below the state wide average.
• If western Oregon BLM lands were held in private ownership, they would generate only $8 million in estimated annual tax revenue compared to the $110 million the counties are asking for.
• Transferring 2.6 million acres of BLM forestlands to the Forest Service will generate a savings of $113.3 million. In western Oregon, BLM spends 4.3 times more to manage an acre of land than the FS.
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Samantha Medlock is President of Climate Risk Advisors, helping communities and organizations advance equity, sustainability, and resilience. Her career began chasing floods as a local official in Texas Flash Flood Alley—a hands-on experience that still shapes her approach to climate and disaster risk management.
Arsum is the Senior Adaptation and Coastal Resilience Specialist for the National Wildlife Federation’s Southcentral Region. In this role, she advances climate adaptation efforts, with a focus on nature-based approaches to address the impacts of climate change and extreme events across the Gulf region. She has authored and co-authored numerous publications on climate impact assessments and adaptation solutions. Additionally, she regularly participates in state-based coastal resilience and hazard mitigation planning across the Gulf, collaborating with regional and local stakeholders.
Jim is a multilingual world traveler. Based in Bavaria during the 1970s, Jim spent most of this period in India, Afghanistan and Nepal, where he founded and operated a charitable medical clinic serving Tibetan Refugees. He settled in Oregon in 1983 on a forested ranch in the Umpqua National Forest.
Dr. Micah Hahn is an Associate Professor of Environmental Health in the Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies at the University of Alaska-Anchorage. She received her joint PhD in Epidemiology / Environment and Resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her MPH in Global Environmental Health from Emory University. Subsequently, she was a postdoctoral fellow for the CDC Climate and Health Program, and in this position worked collaboratively with the CDC Division of Vector-borne Diseases and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Her research focuses on understanding the health impacts of climate change and working with communities to develop locally-relevant adaptation and resilience-building strategies. Dr. Hahn is also on the Management Team of the Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center.
Michael is a former Founding Principal of Resilient Cities Catalyst, a global non-profit helping cities and their partners tackle their toughest challenges. He is currently the Executive Director of Climate Resilience Academy at the University of Miami.
Dr. Quintus Jett is a consultant, educator, and strategist for public causes. He has a doctorate in Organizations & Management from Stanford University, and a two-decade faculty career which spans schools, departments, and programs of business, engineering, liberal studies, divinity, and public and nonprofit management. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Dr. Jett launched a volunteer project in New Orleans, which enlisted residents, students from over a dozen colleges and universities, and hundreds of others to field map the city’s Gentilly district, Lower Ninth Ward, and New Orleans East. Dr. Jett is an innovator in higher education, bridging the divide between academic research and the other priorities of the modern university, including student access and diversity, community engagement, and providing foundations for life-long learning in today’s rapidly changing world.
Scott is Monfort Professor of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. He has written about 100 publications in the peer-reviewed climate literature, is a former editor of the Journal of Climate, and served for five years as founding Science Chair of the North American Carbon Program.
Linda has many years of experience in disaster preparedness and resilience. She has been an elected official on the Linn County Iowa Board of Supervisors, Chair of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, the East Central Iowa Council of Governments, the statewide Mental Health Developmental Disability and the Linn County Board of Health. Langston is a former president of the National Association of Counties (2013-2014).
Ken works with families and organizations as a mediator, organizational consultant, trainer and facilitator. Along with his passion for helping people prepare for and reduce climate change, Ken also volunteers as a mediator through Mediation Works and is passionate about supporting youth through mentoring with Boys to Men of Southern Oregon.
Matthew is a retired high school teacher who was once honored as Oregon High School Social Studies Teacher of the Year. Before his teaching career he was in the restaurant business in Portland. He is also a lawyer who has been a member of the Oregon State Bar Association since 1980.
Andrea is the Resilience Policy Advisor for the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency. She works across state agencies and with local governments to increase the state’s resilience to the impacts of climate change.