Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 6, 2019)
Friday, December 6, 2019 CapitalPress.com 3 Washington lands chief proposes tax for wildfire prevention By DON JENKINS Capital Press Washington Lands Com- missioner Hilary Franz pro- posed Monday taxing insur- ance policies to raise $63 million a year to prevent and fight wildfires. The $5-per-policy tax would apply to home, auto and other types of property and casualty insurance. The proposal varies only slightly from one that insurance com- panies successfully opposed last year. Franz said the money would allow the Department of Natural Resources to carry out long-range plans to thin forests and reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires. “Strategic plans are only as good as the funding that comes forward to imple- ment them. Otherwise, they are simply piles of paper on a shelf,” she said at a press conference in Tumwater. Franz last year backed a proposal to raise the tax that insurance companies pay on Ted S. Warren/Associated Press File In this Aug. 21, 2015, photo, an air tanker drops fire retardant on a wildfire burning near Twisp, Wash. The state commissioner of Public Lands released a proposal Mon- day that would provide $63 million each year to fight wildfires and take steps to pre- vent them in the first place. gross receipts. Insurance companies argued that a tax on their revenue would force them and their customers to pay for something that benefits everyone. Northwest Insur- ance Council President Ken- ton Brine said Monday that directly taxing policy holders was no better. “People are not going to be thrilled about getting higher taxes right now,” he said. “You can’t get a more regressive tax than this one.” Franz said that the tax could pay for 42 more fire- fighters, 15 more firetrucks and crew leaders, one heli- copter and more training for volunteer firefighters. The money also could fund forest thinning, controlled burns, replanting burned areas and other measures to protect property. As proposed, the money could not be tapped, or raided, for emergency fire suppression. The DNR annually asks lawmakers for a separate appropriation to cover the actual costs of fighting fires. House Environmental Committee Chairman Joe Fitzgibbon, D-Burien, said he will introduce a bill to impose the tax and direct its spending. Fitzgibbon said climate change will make wildfires worse and that preventing blazes will be less expensive than fighting them. “This is an approach that will save us money in the long run,” Fitzgibbon said. Representatives from the Washington Fire Chiefs, The Nature Conservancy and American Lung Association endorsed the proposal at the press conference. There were no Republicans there. Rep. Tom Dent, R-Mo- ses Lake, joined Franz a year ago to support a wild- fire-spending plan. The idea of taxing insurance policies came later. “There was a lot of push- back on that, me included,” Dent said Monday. Dent said he still back many of Franz’s ideas for spending the money, but he opposes raising taxes. “I think there is plenty of money,” Dent said. “We need to narrow down our priorities.” Without raising taxes on insurance companies, law- makers this year appropri- ated about $38 million in the current two-year budget for fire prevention and suppres- sion by the DNR. Besides arguing that it was unfair to single them out to pay for fire preven- tion, insurance companies said higher taxes would put them at a disadvantage in selling policies in other states. A DNR spokesman said the agency tried to alleviate the concern by directly tax- ing policy holders. Brine said the industry is still concerned about hav- ing to collect the the tax and how the revenue will be interpreted by tax and insurance regulators in other states. Halloween trademark sparks agritourism dispute Two companies claim ownership of ‘Nightmare on 9’ trademark By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press A trademark dispute has erupted between a Washing- ton farm and a haunted house company over a popular Hal- loween event that may prove instructive for other agritour- ism operations. The Thomas Family Farm and the SeattleHaunts attrac- tions company have both filed lawsuits seeking damages and to stop the other from using the “Nightmare on 9” trademark, which refers to the Washing- ton State Route 9 along which the farm is located. Both complaints acknowl- edge the farm and the oper- ator were involved with the first annual “Nightmare on 9” haunted house in Snohomish County in 2012 and that they parted ways after the 2018 Halloween season. However, the two disagree about who devised the trade- mark concept and about their initial roles in operating the event. The lawsuit filed in state court by Thomas Family Farm claims the idea origi- nated with the farm, which also paid a commercial designer for the logo, while SeattleHaunts provided the labor in 2012 and was after- wards hired as a contractor to run the operation. The farm also alleges it registered the trademark with the Washington Secretary of State last year. SeattleHaunts, mean- while, claims in federal court that it was an equal partner with the farm during the 2012 event and provided contract services afterwards, with its owner creating the “Night- mare on 9” name and hiring U.S. Copyright Office A trademark dispute has erupted between a Washing- ton farm and a haunted house company over the logo used for a popular Halloween event in Snohomish County, Wash. the designer. The haunted house com- pany claims the farm’s trade- mark registration was “fraud- ulent” and filed “under a false claim of ownership,” while SeattleHaunts obtained a valid copyright for “Night- mare on 9” from the federal government in 2019. Without commenting on the specifics of the dispute, adjunct trademark law pro- fessor Robert Cumbow of Seattle University said it’s critical for parties involved in such ventures to establish a trademark rights agreement as early as possible. While negotiating such matters may be awkward when everyone is getting along, it can create a “messy situation” when such rela- tionships fracture, said Cum- bow, who is also an intellec- tual property attorney with the Miller Nash Graham & Dunn law firm. “At that point, you’re both going to wish you put some- thing in writing,” he said. Under the law, the owner of the trademark isn’t the person who came up with the concept but rather who initially relied on it to offer goods or services to the pub- lic, Cumbow said. “It’s not who thought of it, it’s the first person to actually use the trademark.” When an entity or partner- ship that owns a trademark breaks up without a contrac- tual agreement about owner- ship, “it does become very, very difficult,” he said. While not technically required by law, registering a trademark with the state or federal governments will also bolster an argument of own- ership, he said. “Registration gives you the presumption of validity in your trademark ownership.” Without a contract or clar- ity about who starting using the trademark first, a court will generally look to the relationship between parties and any other written agree- ments that may provide a clue as to ownership, he said. The goal of trademark law is to prevent confusion among members of the pub- lic as to who is the actual pro- vider of a sought-after good or service, Cumbow said. A court may decide both parties in a dispute own a trademark and then impose limitations on its use, but there have been cases where courts held that neither party owned it anymore, he said. Environmentalist calls for discussions on Snake River dams By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press Stakeholders need to begin talking about the possible impacts to Northwest com- munities if four dams on the Snake River are removed, says the leader of a group that advocates their removal. “I don’t see any reason why we can’t make a transi- tion to a free-flowing lower Snake River and do so in a way that leaves agricultural communities either whole or with additional opportuni- ties,” Joseph Bogaard, execu- tive director of Save Our Wild Salmon, based in Seattle, told the Capital Press. Environmental groups have for years called for the removal of the Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Lit- tle Goose and Lower Gran- ite dams, citing their impacts on federally protected salmon and, more recently, orcas. Bogaard said the conser- vation and fishing communi- ties are committed to finding ways to help ensure greater certainty for all involved, including fishing and farming communities. “I don’t think it’s some- thing we do overnight, I don’t Save Our Wild Salmon Joseph Bogaard is exec- utive director of the Save Our Wild Salmon Coali- tion. think it takes 10 years,” he said. “I think we can, with a plan and political leadership and support and buy-in of key stakeholders, this is some- thing that can be done in three to five years.” Bogaard pointed to “a lot of evidence, analyses and studies that have looked at the science and economics” around the dams, arguing that they are “high-cost and low-value dams with services that, while they’re import- ant and there’s communities that rely on them, they are replaceable.” “There’s quite a bit of evi- dence that suggests that some of the services, maybe all of the services currently pro- vided by the dams, can be fea- sibly and affordably replaced, if we work together (and) put together the kinds of plans that involve timelines, dollars and programming to ensure the communities that cur- rently rely on those dams or reservoirs can transition to alternative means of delivery, say irrigation water or moving transportation on land rather than on the river, or electric- ity,” he said. Advocates for maintain- ing the dams argue that taking them out would not benefit salmon or orcas to the degree that environmentalists say, and would negatively affect trade. Barges use the Snake and Columbia rivers and pass through the locks at the dams to take grain to market down- stream and supplies to farms upstream. Pacific Northwest Water- ways Association executive director Kristin Meira recently called environmentalists’ arguments simplistic, saying they are touting the idea that one action in one area would lead to species recovery. We wish all of our fellow farmers a Merry Christmas and a joyful New Year! FREE STANDING PANELS The Last Panel You will EVER Need to Buy! 24 ft long HEAVY DUTY • STANDARD 4-ROD – $425 • DELUXE 5-ROD – $460 • STANDARD PANEL W/GATE – $460 • DELUXE PANEL W/GATE – $495 Easy to Move Around with a Loader Tractor or Skid Steer • CORRALS • FEEDLOTS • SHIPPING PENS • ARENAS • SORTING ALLEYS • CALVING FACILITIES S133431-1 Turf & Forage Seed Production, Processing, & Distribution -All of us at Ioka Marketing S124977-1 Cell: 509.429.0760 Office: 509.223.3010 Call Bart Spear Today! www.spearranch.com LOOMIS, WA
