January 9, 2015
CapitalPress.com
11
Washington
Senator introduces bill to Group uses billboards to take stand on wolves
tax beekeepers as farmers
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Legislation would
extend exemptions
for apiarists
A Spokane-based group
has mounted a billboard ad-
vertising campaign to in-
crease awareness of the
impact wolves have on Wash-
ington state.
Washington
Residents
Against Wolves began the
campaign using eight bill-
boards in November and
December. The billboards in-
clude such messages as “En-
dangered? No. Deadly? Yes.
Good for Washington? Abso-
lutely not” and “The wolf —
Who’s next on their menu?”
It shows pictures of a deer, an
elk, a calf, a dog and a young
girl.
The billboards were in-
tended to stir interest and ed-
ucate residents about the im-
pacts of wolves on the state, a
spokesman for the group said.
“We’ve received many
good inquiries and inputs on
the billboards, although we’ve
also had death threats as well
from people who mostly don’t
even reside within our state,”
said David Burdge, a spokes-
man and member of the group.
The group has 20 members
and is not affi liated with any
other organization. Its mem-
bers are concerned about the
health and safety of Wash-
ington wildlife and residents,
Burdge said.
“We would like to see a
new wolf management plan
drawn up that manages our
wildlife equally,” he said.
WARAW believes the Wash-
ington Department of Fish
and Wildlife is not following
its wolf management plan and
using lethal control when the
plan calls for it.
“(The state needs) to be
concerned about Washington
residents and not special in-
terest groups that keep threat-
ening to sue them,” Burdge
said. “Most of those people
don’t reside here, they don’t
have to live with the wolf. We
do.”
He said the group realizes
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA, Wash. — A
Washington state senator
has again proposed defining
commercial beekeepers as
“farmers,” a title that comes
with tax breaks.
Senate Bill 5017, filed by
Sunnyside Republican Jim
Honeyford, would direct the
state Department of Revenue
to tax apiarists as farmers
and ranchers and bee prod-
ucts as crops and livestock.
The bill would make per-
manent tax relief lawmakers
gave beekeepers in 2008 to
soothe losses from colonies
collapsing. The tax exemp-
tions are due to expire in
2017.
Honeyford said consider-
ing the importance of bee-
keepers to agriculture, they
shouldn’t have to periodi-
cally lobby to renew the tax
breaks.
“Agriculture couldn’t go
on without them, especially
the tree fruit industry,” he
said.
Making the tax exemp-
tions permanent would en-
shrine tax savings of roughly
$100,000 a year for about
100 beekeepers, according
to DOR estimates.
Being designated a farm-
er by the state would also
mean something, said Mark
Emrich, president of the
Washington State Beekeep-
ers Association.
“It’s finally being recog-
nized. We’re a piece of agri-
culture. We’re not a service
organization. Seriously, I
think it’s huge for beekeep-
ers,” he said.
A similar bill, also intro-
duced by Honeyford, passed
the Senate last year, but
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
A Washington state senator has
introduced a bill to take some
of the sting out of taxes paid by
beekeepers.
stalled in the House Finance
Committee. The 2015 Legis-
lature convenes Jan. 12.
Honeyford’s bill would
make beekeepers eligible
for lower taxes on the mon-
ey they collect for their ser-
vices, such as pollination,
or goods, such as honey and
beeswax.
Beekeepers would save
the most, some $84,000 a
year in state and local taxes,
by being exempt from sales
taxes on the sugar-syrup api-
arists must sometimes feed
bees, according to DOR.
The agency estimated in
2013 that beekeepers spend
$945,000 a year on feed.
DOR estimated beekeep-
ers also would save $7,000 a
year on earnings from polli-
nating services.
Pollinators from anoth-
er state are supposed to pay
the tax for work they do in
Washington, but DOR says it
doesn’t have a way to check
who came into the state to
pollinate crops, so the tax
goes uncollected. Washing-
ton beekeepers say this puts
them at a disadvantage to
out-of-state competitors.
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Traffi c on Nevada Street in Spokane passes a Washington Residents Against Wolves billboard on
Dec. 26. The grassroots group is critical of how the state Department of Fish and Wildlife manages the
growing wolf population.
wolves are here to stay.
“We are not for eradicat-
ing the entire population. We
would like to have the de-
partment look at their wolf
management plan and cut the
numbers down to something
much more realistic.”
WARAW would prefer
fi ve or six breeding pairs
across the state. There are cur-
rently 11 packs in northeast
Washington. “We’re trying
to give people who may be on
the fence or just don’t know a
truly factual base from which
they can educate themselves,”
he said.
Mitch Friedman, exec-
utive director of Conserva-
tion Northwest, an organi-
zation that supports wolves,
said WARAW is not trying
Online
http: //waraw.org/
to demonstrate that they are
thoughtful people.
“I respect groups that try
to advance calm, fact-based,
common-interest
discus-
sions, not so much those who
try to infl ame entrenched
positions,” Friedman said.
“When I look at those bill-
boards and other information
WARAW posts on social me-
dia, it strikes me that they’re
just ideologues trying to fan
fl ames, and I don’t think that’s
good for farmers, wolves or
democracy.”
Conservation Northwest
doesn’t plan to respond to the
billboards. “We don’t feel like
waving our arms in response
to their arm-waving,” Fried-
man said.
Jack Field, executive vice
president of the Washington
Cattlemen’s Association, says
WARAW’s efforts demon-
strate the impact of wolf re-
covery efforts. His association
is not affi liated with WARAW.
“It shows there’s a broad
crosscut of folks that have
opinions on it,” Field said. “I
think these billboards help to
explain some of the concerns
folks have. In the northeast
corner of Washington, the
overall pack density looks
disproportionate compared
to the rest of the state. This
just helps elevate the discus-
sion.”
Farm groups join opposition
By DON JENKINS
Source: Washington State
Department of Ecology
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
Wash.
28
28
8
Moses
90
90
GRANT
ADAMS
395
26
9
2
26
5
Connell
l
240
241
BENTON
FRANKLIN
er
24
b i
u m
Agrium Kennewick
Fertilizer Operation
2. McCain Foods, Othello
3. Tyson Fresh Meats,
Wallula
4. Basic American Foods,
Moses Lake
5-7. ConAgra Foods Lamb
Weston, Connell,
Pasco and Richland
8, 9. JR Simplot, Moses
Lake and Othello
17
395
R
7
Richland
iv
1.
Area in
detail
2
Co
Sn
Pasco
6
Kennewick
1
N
221
82
15 miles
and effi ciencies would be a
better way. Besides the state
Farm Bureau, the Northwest
Food Processors Association,
Washington Association of
Wallula
h.
Was e.
Or
12
Wheat Growers, Washington
Food Industry Association
and Washington Potato and
Onion Association joined the
collaborative.
11 th Annual
Cattleman’s Workshop
“Achieving Sustainable Beef Cow/Calf Production”
Saturday, January 24 th , 2015
Blue Mountain Conference Center
404 12 th Street • La Grande, OR
FREE! No Pre-Registration Required.
Lunch Included!
9:00-9:15
Workshop Introductions & Overview
9:15 -10:15 The March Towards Continuous
Improvement
Cameron Bruett; Chief Sustainability Officer, JBS,
Windsor, CO
10:15-10:45 Break (provided by sponsors)
10:45-11:45 Beef Industry Sustainability
Kim Stackhouse-Lawson; Director of
Sustainability Research, NCBA
11:45-1:00 Lunch (provided by sponsors)
Outlook for Agriculture and Rural Interests
1:00-2:00
in Washington, DC
Todd Van Hoose; Senior Vice President,
Government Affairs, Co-Bank, Washington, DC
2:00-3:00
Weather and Climate, Past, Present &
Future... in Oregon and Beyond
George Taylor; President, Applied Climate
Services, Corvallis, OR
3:00-3:15
Break (provided by sponsors)
3:15-4:15
Value Based Marketing for Feeder Cattle
Tom Brink; Founder/Owner, Brink Consulting/
Trading, Brighton, CO
Note: for more information, please contact Kim McKague
or Tim DelCurto at (541) 562-5129
http://oregonstate.edu/dept/eoarcunion
2-7/#6
An organization formed to
oppose Washington Gov. Jay In-
slee’s carbon-cutting proposal in-
cludes several agriculture groups.
The governor’s cap-and-trade
plan would apply to at least 130
plants, including one fertilizer
manufacturer and eight food
processors, according to the state
Department of Ecology.
The companies, which re-
lease at least 25,000 metric tons
of carbon in a year, would bid for
“allowances” to emit carbon. The
bidding would start at $12.60 per
metric ton, a fl oor price based on
California’s experience with cap-
and-trade, according to DOE.
“It’s another tax on ag,”
Washington Farm Bureau di-
rector of governmental relations
Tom Davis said. “There’s noth-
ing we can do about what China
is sending our way, so why would
we cripple our industries?”
Factories in China produce
large amounts of greenhouse
gases, which are seen as contrib-
uting to climate change.
Legislators, motivated by
concern about climate change,
in 2008 mandated carbon reduc-
tions, but they have never passed
a plan to achieve those cuts. In-
slee says pricing carbon would
get the state on track and, in the
process, raise $1 billion a year for
government programs.
DOE special assistant to the
director Hedia Adelsman said the
proposal is modeled after other
cap-and-trade markets, such as
California’s. “We are not pio-
neers. We are not the fi rst,” she
said.
In response, 19 business and
labor groups formed the Wash-
ington Climate Collaborative,
which criticizes Inslee’s ap-
proach to reducing carbon emis-
sions.
On its website, the group says
it’s “disappointing that the gov-
ernor wants to step in and create
a complicated government-run
fi nancial program to regulate
carbon emissions by coercing
Washingtonians, not collaborat-
ing with them.”
The group states that pri-
vate and public investments
in energy-saving technologies
Ag businesses
impacted by
Washington cap-
and-trade plan
ak
e
Capital Press
2-7/#6