OSWA Legislative Update

Oregon's 75th Legislative Assembly adjourned Monday, June 29, at 9:45 p.m. The end of session action included a budget reconciliation bill that added funds to some agencies and took money away from others. Most agencies are in the process of analyzing their final budget for the biennium that began July 1, 2009 and ends on June 30, 2011.

The session may have ended but much action will continue in several arenas including agency rulemaking, plans for a special session in February 2010 and most prominently the campaign to refer the legislatively adopted Personal and Corporate Tax increases to a public vote. A broad coalition of business organizations, natural resource interests and individual companies began to plan strategy prior to Sine Die.

Planning is all the broad-based coalition can do for now. They will need to gather 55,000 signatures to refer the tax plans to the voters. However, signature gathering cannot begin until the law takes effect. Even though the tax bills were adopted in June, they are not official until the Speaker of the House, Senate President and the Governor sign the law. Assuming Governor Kulongoski takes the entire time allotted, signature gathering will have approximately 60 days, beginning towards the end of July.

Besides the budget reconciliation bill, the rush to adjoin also brought passage of a ban on field burning. SB 528 passed the house 31-28 on the last day following narrow passage by the Senate a week earlier. Amendments to SB 528 narrowed the scope of the burning ban to grass fields in Linn and Lane Counties.

Also on the last day, the legislature delayed implementation of M57, a property crimes sentencing ballot measure passed by the voters in 2008 and called a timeout for new virtual Charter Schools.

Finally, in the waning moments of the session, the legislature passed some new provisions regarding energy tax credits, including biomass. These tax credits could benefit family forestland owners in the coming years

Department of Forestry Budget - A Mixed Bag
Oregon's recession has taken a significant hit on the ODF budget since much of the budget relies on funds from timber sale revenue and timber harvest taxes, both of which are at record low levels.

ODF's Fire program faired better the Department's other program budgets. Due to the strong lobbying efforts of OSWA and others, the budget maintains its historical 50/50% General Fund/Landowner split. Also, landowners' costs for the fire insurance deductible are now capped at $10 million, rather than $15 million in the previous three biennia. An ODF Budget note indicates that the 2010 legislature may revisit the $25 million fire insurance deductible after the 2009 Fire Season experience.

ODF has begun eliminating jobs in their State Forests program. However, federal stimulus funds are providing temporary employment for some of the laid off State Forest employees. However, the 15-18 State Forest employees that were retained with federal stimulus dollars will being doing fire hazard reduction and fish & Wildlife projects, not State timber sale preparation or Forest Practices Act enforcement duties.

ODF will wait until September and the end of fire season before they reduce Private Forests, or Stewardship Foresters.

WHAT"S NEXT....
Now that the legislative session is over, OSWA's Legislative Update will move from a weekly publication to an as needed publication. We will report on significant state and federal issues, including state level rulemakings and agency news/actions, as well as key federal legislative actions. We may call on you to make phone calls and send letters on key federal legislative proposals that could impact family forestland owners.

Staff is currently preparing a state legislative session summary that will be provided to OSWA members by the end of July. This summary will recap the session and provide details about our successes to pass legislation related to our legislative priorities, as well as defeat legislation that would have harmed our membership.

Finally, staff will be working with OSWA chapter leaders over the coming months to invite state legislators on field tours. Between sessions is the best time to engage state legislators and educate them on the issues facing family forestland owners and potential solutions that they could support on our behalf.

For the report on OSWA legislation, click on:
OSWA Bill Tracker
Login: OSWA; Password: session09

For more legislative information, click on:
Conkling Fiskum & McCormick Insider Online.

Thank you for reading OSWA's Legislative Update. Please pass this email on to others that may be interested in legislative news and information. Your comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Sincerely,

David Ford

Executive Director

Oregon Small Woodlands Association

Ralph Saperstein

OSWA Lobbyist

Conkling Fiskum & McCormick

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