Representative Wayne Krieger’s October 12, 2013 editorial regarding the passage of House Bill 3453 demonstrates a particularly galling form of political hubris coupled with some artful misdirection. The bill empowers the governor to declare a fiscal emergency upon cash strapped counties and impose a tax on residents to fund public safety mandates. Krieger declares that HB 3453, while imperfect, is a collaborative legislative effort and a “responsible” and “acceptable” response to the fiscal crises that he blames on spotted owls and the Northwest Forest Management Plan.
Krieger goes on to say that the “ultimate solution” will require a change in federal policy, a little sleight of hand to deflect from the fact that Salem, not Congress, is starving rural counties by offering free rides to large timber owners through special assessments and by doing away with the severance tax. The 2009 Governor’s Task Force on Federal Forest Payments and County Services report identifies that Coos County only realizes 32% of its tax revenue potential. In other words, of the $7.3 billion value, (2007 figures), thanks to special assessments our taxing districts only receive $23.2 million instead of $73.4 million in tax revenue.
According to the Coos County Assessor, 608,363 acres or 66% of the 920,350 acres of taxable land are undervalued for terms of property tax assessment. Large tract forestland, most of which is owned by Wall Street investment firms, accounts for 490,639 acres and are assessed at less than $390 per acre regardless of how many millions of dollars worth of trees are standing on them and thanks to Salem there is no longer any severance tax to help fund county services. Highly productive and profitable forestland, almost half of the county’s entire landmass, pays virtually nothing towards the county services and infrastructure that enable these profits.
Most of us have or soon will receive our property tax bill and the customary annual 3% increase in our assessed value will be reflected on the statement but this won’t guarantee that local public services will not be reduced or cutback in the light of tightening budgets. Property owners like Weyerhaeuser or Plum Creek, will probably not see any change because they applied for and were granted a special assessment.
This is about tax equity and the fact that most of us are subsidizing what amounts to Asian tree farms so that foreign investors will see a higher quarterly return. 
Effectively, Coos County taxpayers that are desperate for employment are subsidizing jobs in foreign mills. It takes a lot of hubris for legislators like Krieger to assert that imposing an additional tax on those of us already paying our full and fair share is either responsible or appropriate or by any means the only solution. As Einstein famously observed one cannot solve a problem with the same thinking that created it and kluging together a bill like HB 3453 is like trying to cover Fukushima with a tarpaulin and expecting gratitude for disguising the problem.
Salem enabled this crisis and Salem could take steps to fix it by doing away with special assessments and invoking a more equitable taxation scheme or reenacting a 6 to 10% severance tax. A handful of intrepid State legislators introduced HB 2555 to do just that but it died in committee and went ignored by the Coastal Caucus of which Krieger and Representative Caddy McKeown are members.
Barring help from Salem, our own county commission might impose an export fee on the mountains of logs shipped out of the same bay dredged with taxpayer money. At least one commissioner, John Sweet, agrees that the current system is inequitable but doubts there is enough political will to take on the powerful timber industry and avert a showdown with the governor. Rather than be proactive our local leaders and state legislators prefer to wait and see whether Congress might privatize even more federal timberland, saturating the market and thereby lowering the value of trees which in turn requires us to cut more trees to make up the difference. Clearly it is time to decouple trees from schools and services because the current system obviously isn’t working. The responsible and appropriate action is for Salem or our local commission to implement a system of equitable taxation.
The Coos County Commission could earn the 2.2% raise it just gave itself if rather than passively waiting to see what Congress is willing to handout the commissioners actively pressured Salem to require the timber companies to pay their fair share.
I just read Oregon has taken all but 3% of it’s old growth, now the dimocrats in Salem includiing Peter D., want a new law because taking more is illegal, based on many decades of research. Not hard to figure that one out, Peter wants the votes and cash from Coos County, he doesn’t really give a rat’s arse about the forest, it’s all a lousy script.
I also just read the cut/import in Oregon increased 2010-2011 38%. So why is Peter working so hard to take what is left of the Eliott old growth? Votes folks, and money, why else?
As soon as the word “owl” falls out of their mouth you instantly know they are spewing verbal BS.
Yup, its kind of like the al Qaeda of the forest
Regarding the ultimate paragraph and the commissioners pay raise. If the World paper reporting is correct, and that’s a definite maybe, what a crock of crap statement by the former well paid tribe lawyer Cribbins. She knew the pay scale for a commissioner when she sought the job last year. Now she needs the $100 / month pay raise. And she expects to see that raise equal 10% soon. What has she done to deserve a pay raise? What relief do the taxpayers get to equal that 10% raise that she wants to give herself?
Running for office with the expectation of a competitive paycheck seems counter intuitive to the concept of public service.