AOCC lobbies for split from Secure Rural Schools funding

Presenter The timber industry once contributed much more revenue to Lane County. The O&C counties are trying to get that timber harvest back to where it will sustain key county services. On July 8, Commissioner David Loveall:

Commissioner David Loveall We had our annual quarterly Association of Oregon and California Counties (AOCC) meeting in Medford on June 19. I want to update you on what’s going on with that and what the future holds. 

We’re joining the Bureau of Land Management to get the resource management plan put forward and increase their management over the O&C Lands Act, according to the desires of the federal government. As you know, our federal government wants to increase timber production on the O&C lands. 

Our lobbyist in DC said the 75% receipt level is moving forward without opposition, so that’s good news for us as it gives us more money in perspective and proportion from our O&C lands. The new BLM director was confirmed two weeks ago as of June. So now this has been over a month ago. 

That has slowed some of the progress of the resource management plan, but the schedule is still aggressive and the clear timeline will be exposed more toward the end of the summer. And everyone is still hopeful that the resource management plan will be resolved by January of ‘28. 

So we’re still on an aggressive trajectory there to get that worked out. That, as you know, as you may or may not know, that resource management plan is 2016 and it needs a reboot as everything else we’re talking about today. 

The current annual sales quantity for the O&C lands is 216 million board feet a year. I say that so that you can put a marker in your head just a little bit. This is the first time the Bureau of Land Management this past year has met that annual sales quantity in over a decade. 

So you look at our annual production used to be almost 1 billion board feet a year, in the heyday of the timber industry. Now it’s down to 219 million a year. And this is the first time this year that we’ve actually hit that goal, which is, you know, a tenth of what we used to be producing. 

The key thing about the fluctuations that’s been over the last decade have been lower and higher. The average over the last decade has—essentially we have missed an entire year of 219 million board feet. When you look at that as a concern for the county, if we’re looking at revenue sources for our O&C lands over the past decade, we’ve been shorted a year in revenue. 

And so the O&C lobbyist groups and those folks are really pressing hard on the Bureau of Land Management and the Department of Interior to not only get our annual sales quantities established higher, but to also make them more consistent so that our consistent source of revenue is indeed consistent. 

So the good news is, well, and the bad news is, is I figured that that’s nearly $5 million dollars of missed Lane County revenue over the last decade. So that’s not chump change, as they say. That’s a significant number.

Commissioner Ryan Ceniga  Keep the transfer stations open.

Commissioner David Loveall Well, it would have made us whole. Yeah. 

The good news is there’s already 485 million board feet under contract for this next year, which is a 33% increase. So that’s good news. 

Now, the other good news is that our contact at the Department of the Interior committed to the O&C committee that he is committed to increasing our minimum harvest yield on the O&C lands to 390 million board feet by December. 

So to say all those numbers in play is all the people that are in concert here, by trying to get us our revenue that the O&C lands gives the counties, everyone’s on the page to get a new resource management plan in order so we can make that simpler, there’s less litigation, and that our revenue sources are increasing not only from the increased percentages, but also from the increased annual sales quantities. 

Now, the challenges going forward are this. And I got to propose this because I need to have an ask here. So I’m not asking for a decision today, but I’m just asking you to mull this around. 

The most recent Blue and Gold Sale—it’s called the Blue and Gold Sale, it’s a large timber sale in Douglas and Jackson County—it was an authorized sale of 40 million board feet. 

What happened is, the people went in there, they started working it, they got about 12 million board feet cut down, and they were sued with some environmental group that came in and highlighted the 2016 resource management plan discrepancy. That really wasn’t a discrepancy on the O&C side. That caused the judge to make a decision to shut the entire project down. 

And what he did was really unusual at the time, was he shut the project down where it stood like, ‘Hey, everybody, get in your trucks, get off the land. You’re done.’

Well, there was still about 4 million board feet of timber that was fallen on the ground. And so the O&C lobbyist group came into the courts. Our legal team came in and lobbied to the judge to say, ‘Look, all that timber is going to go to waste. You at least have to let us get it off the ground floor so we can get the revenue and get that that on the trucks.’

So they were allowed back in to do that. I say all that because these are the kinds of issues that we’re going to have to face going forward. And right now, the Association of Oregon and California Counties’ litigation reserves is getting fairly low. 

What they do on occasion is, in addition to the dues that Lane County and the other participating counties make available every year, they also ask for help with litigation costs. Currently, right now, let me cut to the bad news—the chase— is our portion of the litigation costs that they’re asking for. 

We’re also including a portion of the non-participating counties of the 18 counties. There’s four counties that aren’t participating in the O&C lobby group right now. 

Our total cost would be $27,261.37 that they’re asking for, litigation reserve that they’re trying to build up in their account to fight these frivolous lawsuits that are done on sales that have already happened, so the continual, predictable flow of cash revenues can come into the county. 

I think it’s a worthwhile investment. I know that we gain a lot back from them. I’m also willing to participate in this cost by, we just had a recycle of our office funds over the new cycle of the budget year, and I’m willing to donate my entire office budget, which is almost half of this cost to get this important work done, because I think it’s important going forward that the county stays at the table with this. 

Let me add one last thing is, I want you to know that not since 1952 has the O&C counties had the opportunity to receive 75% of the actual BLM timber receipts.

The caveat, of course, is that by electing to receive O&C receipts, we’re also electing to receive the Forest Service timber receipts and not the Forest Service SRS payment. That gets a little confusing because there’s two entities here. 

What we’re doing here is that we’re trying to establish the requirement that our counties can have options going forward. Now, as you know, we’re locked into, I think, another year of receiving SRS payments, but some of the counties aren’t. 

And what Congress has now been rumored to have on their plate is they want to make permanent the future Secure Rural Schools bill, this SRS bill. But the lobby group that the O&C are fighting for is they’re trying to make it so that we’re not locked into those choices over a specific period of time. 

They’re also trying to make—and this is the goal that I think is important—the O&C lands are currently, we’re trying to get those withdrawn from the current or any future Secure Rural Schools legislation. And this would allow in the future, not only for us to have our full 75% receipts, but it would also elect us to have also the Forest Service SRS payment. So we’d be getting both, and if you will, more money. Both.

And I think that’s where the current administration wants to land on this. It’s not going to open up any more requirement for the SRS locker, if you will, to have more funds. It’s just going to redistribute them in a better way and more beneficial way to the county. 

I know that’s a lot of numbers. I know that’s a lot of information, but I want to just say that I’m really impressed with our legal team and the way the Association of Oregon and California Counties is under the direction of Tim Freeman and Doug Robertson, are at the table fighting for all of the revenue that the O&C lands was designed to do in the 1937 law that says they would be used for schools, infrastructure, general fund money that we need desperately. 

So I’m willing to contribute. Like I said, my entire office fund, $12,000 toward half this invoice, because I think this litigation is important. And not only that, it would continue to build the predictability of our timber revenues that we deserve.

Presenter Commissioner Pat Farr:

Commissioner Pat Farr Well, my response to that is we lament the fact that we have the second-lowest permanent tax rate in Oregon. And the reason we do is because we were dependent on the promise of timber receipts. This is a move in that direction, and to even things out.

It would be disingenuous of me to say I don’t support this, because in fact, what we’re doing is we’re trying to claw back some. That’s not the best term, but get back some of the funds that have been withheld for lots and lots of different reasons, including lawsuits that really helped Lane County with our general fund and the things that we operate, like parks and like the sheriff’s department and like public safety in general. 

So it would be disingenuous of me to not support that.

Commissioner David Loveall And to add to that, thank you for that comment. And add to that too. We have to understand, too, that these lands grow a billion board feet a year, whether we harvest it or not. So, you know, for us to be—

The rumors that I’ve heard that the BLM and the Department of Interior is trying to do is they’re trying to get us up to 900 million board feet a year on these lands, which would still be a way more sustainable rate than going the full 1 billion board feet. 

But that’s the intention. And so to me, that just means that, you know, we have the potential to really getting back the money that’s been due us rather than watching it burn.

Presenter Commissioner David Loveall asks Lane County to support the Oregon and California Counties in their quest to return to a sustainable timber harvest and support vital county programs.