Forestry Budget Finally Approved
Last Friday afternoon following interminable delays and brinksmanship, the budget for the Oregon Department of Forestry passed the Ways & Means Natural Resources Subcommittee.  The ODF budget was the final budget approved by the subcommittee as the legislature charges towards adjournment.
 
Budget negotiations ran into a brick wall when budget writers ignored legislation, HB 2215, unanimously approved by the House Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee.  HB 2215 set out sharing of emergency fire costs on a dollar for dollar basis from the first dollar between forest landowners and the General Fund and maintaining the current maximum landowner share at $15 million.  The $15 million limit has been in place for the past few biennia, but needs to be renewed every two years or the limit defaults to $10 million.  Oregon's one-of-a-kind fire insurance comes with a $25 million deductible that landowners and the General Fund have to pay before the policy kicks in.
 
Legislators were forced to resolve the emergency fire fund matter when subcommittee members refused to approve the ODF budget until an equitable resolution of forest landowner fire costs was reached.  Like everything legislative, the ultimate product was a compromise that was designed on the spot.  Although forest landowners will not share emergency fire costs on a dollar for dollar basis with the General Fund, the landowners share will be reduced to a maximum of $10 million.  Thus, the landowners will pay the first $10 million of the insurance deductible and the General Fund will be responsible for all costs from $10 million to the $25 million.
 
Previously, legislative budget writers had agreed to restore the 50-50% cost sharing for the normal fire program budget and remove Administration costs from landowners' responsibility.  Thus, the Governor's proposal to shift more of the fire program costs to landowners was rejected by the budget writers.  Note: OSWA members' lobbying efforts this session did pay dividends!
 
ODF's Private Forest program did not fare as well as the fire program.  It is still unclear how many stewardship foresters will be lost based on the approved budget.  OSWA will report on this in the coming weeks as the impacts clarify. 
 
To help offset some of the revenue loss due to the budget cuts, landowners agreed to continue forest practice act enforcement support at the current Forest Product Harvest Tax rate for the next two years.  Thus, the subcommittee approved HB 2214 with an amendment that will maintain the historical 60-40% split between the General Fund and the FPHT by describing the $0.37 per thousand board feet as a privilege tax.  Forest landowners agreed to maintain the FPHT thru the one-time surcharge, or privilege tax, in light of the state's revenue shortfall as long as the money is directed to field enforcement of the Forest Practices Act as the budget legislation requires.
 
Subcommittee Co-Chair Sen. Vicki Walker, D-Eugene, was extremely helpful in advocating for ODF's budget and maintaining landowners' traditional level of support for fire and forest practices.  At the end of the committee's deliberations, Co-Chair Rep. Bob Jenson, R-Pendleton, said that he and other budget writers would work with forest landowners during the interim to forge a long-term resolution to the emergency fire cost sharing issue.
 
ODF Division Chiefs Paul Bell (Fire) and Jim Paul (Private Forests) have been invited to attend our next GAC meeting (July 1) to review the final budget numbers and the impacts to their respective programs.