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CapitalPress.com
Friday, January 8, 2021
Legislatures: ‘We have essentially a balanced budget in front of us’
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“We have bad internet out here,
most of Eastern Washington does,”
said Kretz, who plans to stay in
Olympia during the session. “I have
been unable to express my view-
points fully in a number of meetings.
“The public is, the way I see it, in
a really bad position for having their
interests represented,” Kretz said.
Inslee said he expects legislators
to largely function as they always
do. “We have found
remote communi-
cations has actually
worked very, very
well,” he said.
“I think they’re
going to work out
wrinkles in their
Washington process. That will
Gov. Jay
take a little bit of
Inslee
time, but I don’t
think we should
trim our sails much here.”
Inslee has presented lawmakers
with a two-year operating budget
proposal that would increase state
spending by 10.5% to $57.5 billion.
Pandemic-induced business lock-
downs have not translated into a bud-
get deficit. Inslee proposes to add to
growing state revenue with approx-
imately $1 billion in new taxes and
by spending down the rainy day
fund by $2 billion.
The Department of Ecology
would add 62 full-time positions,
including 34.6 jobs to implement
a cap-and-trade plan for carbon
emissions, 8.3 jobs to administer a
low-carbon fuel standard and 6.9
jobs to enforce the Obama adminis-
tration’s Clean Water Rule.
In outlining his agenda, Inslee
said voters were given a choice, and
they re-elected him to a third term
by 545,177 votes. “That’s a decision
that they made,” he said.
Inslee overwhelmingly captured
King County, where Seattle is, by
580,352 votes, more than enough to
offset the loss of 27 of the 39 coun-
ties in the state.
The governor scored his most
lopsided victories in King and San
Juan counties. The counties rank one
and two, respectively, in per capita
personal income, according to the
Office of Financial Management.
On the other side of the state, the
governor lost to Republican can-
didate Loren Culp in Ferry, Frank-
lin and Grant counties, the three
counties with the lowest per capita
incomes.
Senate Minority Leader John
Braun, R-Centralia, said Inslee’s
proposals to raise taxes to spend
“mostly on more government” were
“out of touch.”
“They just don’t seem to under-
stand how hard it is if you’re not
getting that bi-weekly government
check,” Braun said. “They don’t
seem at all interested in connecting
with people that are having a hard
time getting through this.
“We have essentially a balanced
budget in front of us, prior the gover-
nor’s proposal, and $2 billion in the
rainy day fund,” he said. “We have
everything we need to address our
challenges without new taxes. It’s as
simple as that.”
The state estimates a 9% tax on
capital gains over $25,000 for indi-
viduals and $50,000 for joint filers
would raise $975 million the first
year, a figure revised downward
since the governor rolled out his
budget.
The tax would exempt some cap-
ital gains from selling agricultural
property, but there is no blanket
exemption for farmers or ranchers.
The tax, according to the gov-
ernor’s office, would not apply to
cattle, horses or breeding livestock
sales if the property was held for
Oregon State Capitol in Salem
Washington State Capitol, left, and Idaho State Capitol.
more than 12 months and at least
50% of the taxpayer’s gross income
was from farming or ranching.
Gains from selling a farm held for
at least 10 years would be exempt,
provided the taxpayer had “regular,
continuous and substantial involve-
ment” in the farm.
— Don Jenkins
OREGON: Climate
conversation likely to change
SALEM — Faced with COVID-
19’s persistent disruptions, Oregon
lawmakers are expected to be less
preoccupied with controversial cli-
mate legislation during the 2021 leg-
islative session.
While carbon cap-and-trade leg-
islation probably
won’t hog the spot-
light this year, leg-
islators will take up
other climate-re-
lated
proposals
during the session,
which will begin
Oregon
Jan. 19 and end in
Gov. Kate
late June.
Brown
Lawmakers
are likely to con-
centrate on encouraging renewable
energy production and adoption of
electric vehicle fleets, rather than
taxing fuel emissions, said Jenny
Dresler, a lobbyist for the Oregon
Farm Bureau.
“I think you will see a shift in the
carbon conversation. I don’t think
it’s necessarily going by the way-
side,” Dresler said.
Cutting emissions will remain a
focus for the Department of Envi-
ronmental Quality and other state
agencies, while the cost of new
renewable energy mandates would
ultimately be borne by ratepayers,
she said. “It’s definitely something
that should be concerning.”
Bills related to COVID-19 relief
and wildfire prevention are likely to
be top-of-mind at a time when the
Legislature will be making difficult
budget decisions amid continued
economic turmoil. Gov. Kate Brown
has proposed spending $100.2 bil-
lion in her overall budget for the
2021-2023 biennium, but lawmak-
ers typically amend that amount. Of
that, $24.3 billion is in the general
fund, which comes from taxes. The
remainder is from the federal gov-
ernment and other sources such as
the state lottery and fees.
There will likely be pressure to
raise state revenues by increasing
taxes or eliminating past tax cuts,
which shouldn’t be borne by small
businesses, said Mary Anne Cooper,
the Farm Bureau’s vice president of
public policy.
State agencies such as the Depart-
ment of Agriculture and Water
Resources Department will also ask
to raise fees for services that farm-
ers and irrigators depend on, Cooper
said. “This is not the year to be rais-
ing fees.”
Labor advocates will likely cite
the pandemic’s dangers as a rea-
son to impose or expand rules for
employers, which may implicate the
farm industry’s seasonal workforce,
said Dresler. “Those regulations
aren’t necessarily built for the little
guy and our folks tend to get swept
up in it.”
It’s likely that wildfire legisla-
tion will be re-introduced that would
require electric utilities to develop
risk-based protection plans and
allow local governments to imple-
ment stricter defensible-space codes,
among other measures, said Saman-
tha Bayer, the Farm Bureau’s policy
counsel.
A similar bill died during the
2020 legislative session.
Wildfire proposals will need to be
thoroughly evaluated to avoid unin-
tended consequences to rural areas,
such as widespread power out-
ages, Bayer said. Defensible-space
requirements also shouldn’t require
the removal of crops such as
hazelnuts.
“We want to make sure that
doesn’t mean conversion of produc-
tive vegetation,” she said.
Though forest management on
federal lands is beyond the state gov-
ernment’s control, lawmakers will
likely work on policies for state for-
estlands and fire-adapted communi-
ties, she said. “The federal manage-
ment piece is important, but there are
things the state can do to prepare for
the next fire season.”
Exactly how productive lawmak-
ers will be in passing bills remains
an open question due to the logisti-
cal barriers of conducting legislative
business remotely — at least during
the early months of the session
before vaccines are widely available.
Though committees have been
holding hearings online during the
pandemic, the proposition will be
more challenging when they’re con-
tending with the typical rush of tes-
timony and negotiations required to
meet legislative deadlines.
For farmers who live far from the
Capitol, testifying on the impacts
of legislation remotely will be less
time-consuming than traveling to
Salem, said Cooper.
On the other hand, communicat-
ing with lawmakers is much tougher
when the Legislature’s business is
conducted online, she said.
Farm advocates must schedule
meetings rather than speaking with
the lawmakers informally in the hall-
way, and the usual back-and-forth
about policy implications is more
time-consuming, Cooper said.
“It’s taking us about three times
as much work to do what we do at
the Capitol,” she said. “It feels like
going through molasses to do the
same work.”
— Mateusz Perkowski
IDAHO: Budget surplus main
focus of legislators
BOISE — How best to manage
Idaho’s $630 million budget surplus
will be the main topic when state
lawmakers convene later this month.
The
sur-
plus is more than
10 times bigger
than when legis-
lators adjourned
March 19, early
in the COVID-19
pandemic.
Idaho Gov.
The
surplus
Brad Little includes
budget
holdbacks
Gov.
Brad Little ordered as the pan-
demic swept through the state, high-
er-than-expected sales and income
tax collections, and indirect impacts
from federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief
and Economic Security (CARES)
Act money.
The $1.25 billion from CARES
helped businesses and workers pay
more sales and income tax than
anticipated. CARES money also
went to schools and state agencies,
such as the Department of Correc-
tion, which left some state general
fund revenue unspent. The general
fund comes from state sales and
income taxes.
Little, a Republican rancher from
Emmett, is scheduled to open the
2021 Legislature Jan. 11 with his
State of the State address. He will
include his proposed budget for Fis-
cal 2022, which starts July 1.
He plans a package that provides
tax cuts and makes one-time invest-
ments in transportation, education
and water projects.
Little’s general approach is “to
get the surplus money into the econ-
omy,” state Division of Financial
Management Administrator Alex
Adams said.
He said Little took a similar
approach to much of Idaho’s share
of CARES funds, getting money
“working” in the form of small-busi-
ness grants, return-to-work incen-
tives and local government assis-
tance, among other spending.
And the governor was “surgical”
in his early COVID-19 executive
orders, Adams said. “For example,
the construction economy continued
in Idaho.” Some other states shut
down construction projects, at least
temporarily.
The surplus increased from $54.9
million on March 19 to $630 mil-
lion in mid-December, the Legisla-
tive Services Office reported. State
tax collections from July through
November were 16.6% above
year-earlier levels.
Little, in a June 22 memo, also
called for a spending freeze among
agencies next year, mandating gen-
eral fund appropriations not exceed
this year’s. The current general fund
budget approaches $4.1 billion,
including agency budget holdbacks
of 5%.
About 43% of the $9.9 billion
total budget is the general fund, 36%
is federal money and the rest is ded-
icated fees. Idaho sets its budget
annually.
“We are happy we are in rela-
tively good shape but we don’t know
what ‘22 is going to bring,” said
Rep. Rick Youngblood, R-Nampa,
co-chairman of the budget-setting
Joint Finance-Appropriations Com-
mittee. “I’m cautiously optimistic
for our budgeting for 2022.”
He expects legislation on using
and tracking funds that come in after
the session adjourns. The CARES
Act infusion is an example.
The governor called a special leg-
islative session in August to cover
liability and election laws amid
COVID-19 concerns, but it did not
cover how to spend CARES Act
funds. A committee helped guide
that spending. The 16-member panel
included representatives of the Leg-
islature, state offices and agencies,
small and large businesses, tribes
and the state Board of Education.
Legislative leaders have also
said they plan in the ‘21 session to
address executive powers during
emergencies.
Roger Batt, who represents sev-
eral agriculture groups, said the Trea-
sure Valley Water Users Association
would like to see part of the sur-
plus to go to more state flood-man-
agement and water-quality grants,
which have strong demand and are
supported by local matching funds.
Batt also expects more discus-
sions about property-tax relief.
Hemp may also come up. The
Legislature in the past has consid-
ered but did not pass bills to legalize
hemp production.
Braden Jensen of the Idaho
Farm Bureau said his organization
“is working with legislators to see
that a hemp bill is considered and
introduced.”
The Legislature will meet in per-
son. It would have to approve any
changes to the session, including
holding all or parts of it remotely.
All official business will also be
live-streamed.
— Brad Carlson
Hammonds: Groups say they plan to protest the proposed decision
Continued from Page 1
Steven Hammond for a 2006
blaze. Western Watersheds
Project and WildEarth Guard-
ians said they plan to protest
the proposed decision.
“Giving the permit to the
Hammonds shows a flagrant
disregard for the rule of law ...
and is clearly a political move
rather than a responsible allo-
cation of public lands,” said
Erik Molvar, executive director
of Western Watersheds Project.
“With one foot out the
door, the Trump administra-
tion is trying ... to allow these
bad-actor permittees to run
roughshod over public lands,”
said Sarah McMillan, Conser-
vation Director for WildEarth
Guardians.
Any protest by an inter-
ested party should be made
within 15 days of being
advised of the proposed deci-
sion, with a final decision
issued thereafter, said BLM
spokeswoman Tara Thissell.
Though
the
Interior
Department restored the graz-
ing permit to the Hammonds
in 2019, a federal judge over-
turned that decision.
The Hammonds dropped
an appeal of that ruling to
compete against other bidders
for the allotment.
The federal judge’s deci-
sion that rescinded the graz-
ing permit did not vacate the
grazing preference for Ham-
mond Ranches, Alan Schro-
eder, the company’s attorney,
said in March.
Grazing preferences are
important because they attach
to a “base property” in the
vicinity of the federal allot-
ments, placing the ranch first
in line for a grazing permit.
A federal judge later deter-
mined that BLM can cancel
such a preference without a
notice or hearing at the same
time it decides against renew-
ing a grazing permit.
Cattle groups argued that
would undermine the stability
of the Western grazing system
and reduce the values of pri-
vate ranch lands.
Capital Press reporter
Matuesz Perkowski contrib-
uted to this story.
Challenge: Standards also complicate how farm employers house H-2A guestworkers
Continued from Page 1
Grower-Shipper Associa-
tion of Central California
and Ventura County Agri-
cultural Association.
Bryan Little, director
of employment policy for
the Farm Bureau, said the
board gave businesses scant
time to comment.
In the lawsuit, farm
groups allege the board
lacks authority to impose
many of the sweeping safety
measures on employers.
In a statement Dec. 31,
Dave Puglia, CEO and
president of Western Grow-
ers, said employers had
been following safety mea-
sures since March.
“The board imposed
unrealistic, unfounded and
economically harmful stan-
dards in total disregard of
these realities. We have no
choice but to seek judicial
relief,” said Puglia.
In November, the stan-
dards created significant
new obligations and liabil-
ities for California farm-
ers. The new standards
required employers to pro-
vide expanded virus test-
ing and additional paid time
off, even if workers were
exposed to COVID-19 out-
side the workplace.
The worst part, farm
groups say, is ambiguous
language about housing.
The standard requires
that the housing employers
provide to workers infected
with COVID-19 must be
cleaned daily. That rules
out hotels, which can’t be
cleaned while housing an
infected person.
The standards also com-
plicate how farm employers
house H-2A guestworkers.
The standards require fur-
ther spacing between beds
that would halve the number
of people per unit.
Some growers also pro-
vide housing for long-term
employees. According to
ambiguous ETS language,
any time visitors enter a
farmworker’s family home,
masks must be worn and fur-
niture moved.
Rob Roy, president and
general counsel at the Ventura
County Agricultural Asso-
ciation, said the standards
also impose transportation
requirements that would cut
by 50% the number of peo-
ple who can ride in a vehicle
and force employers to secure
more buses.
The standards are effective
through Oct. 1, 2021.