Upcoming Timber Tax Forum for the Portland area
We are concerned that timber counties have not been getting the revenue they deserve since Oregon stopped taxing timber. We don’t tax its value when it is growing nor when it is cut. Unlike our neighbors.
We’ve been talking with legislators and working with coastal communities concerned about what clear cuts and weak stream buffers are doing to their water supplies. We decided it was time to sponsor a series of forums around the state. We’ve held two Zoom forums on the coast; now it’s your turn in the Portland metro area.
Timber Tax Fairness for Counties, Water and Forests
Zoom event Wednesday, November 11th 6:00-7:30.
Timber Tax Fairness for Counties, Water and Forests
- Why are some rural counties struggling to afford essential services?
- Who owns large timberlands in our counties?
- What do the large timber owners contribute to county needs?
- What’s happening in our drinking watersheds?
Guest Speakers:
- Jody Wiser, tax policy expert, Tax Fairness Oregon
- Richard Felley, retired water district manager, past director Tillamook Estuaries Partnership
- Catherine Thomasson, MD, retired director of Physicians for Social Responsibility
Background:
Recent articles by Tony Schick of OPB and Rob Davis of the Oregonian and ProPublica revealed the shocking reality that Oregon’s timber owners don’t pay their fair share of taxes. For decades these timber owners have worked to incrementally reduce their tax liability, and, as a result, rural communities have suffered. Here are the articles that explain how the timber industry managed to get its tax burden decreased by about $3 billion since 1991.
A group of coastal residents are now exploring ways to reinstate fair timber taxes to fill the hole left in Oregon’s rural county budgets created by the elimination of the tax that helped to pay for county services. Their legislative concept restoring fair timber taxes would help to fund K-12 education, water sources protection and forest fire protection.
State Legislative Counsel is drafting the legislation to reinstate timber taxes to 1996 levels and redirect that funding to local communities. It would also provide a tax reduction to those companies that switch to more environmentally-sound forestry practices (e.g. no pesticide use, longer crop rotations, increased water health, and mitigating climate change).