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About Illinois Valley news. (Cave City, Oregon) 1937-current | View Entire Issue (July 30, 2003)
Page 13 Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, OR Wednesday, July 30, 2003 Knopp asks for revised state budget House Majority Leader Tim Knopp (R-Bend) has called on Gov. Kulongoski to issue a revised budget that shows how he intends to pay for his spending proposals. The last budget issued by Kulongoski was on April 18. Since then, the economy has continued to decline, setting revenue projections back by more than $800 million, and the governor has indicated a desire to increase spending by more than $250 million, according to Knapp . “House Republicans were attacked by the gov- ernor for trying to move this process forward,” said Knopp. “After (last week’s) letter, it is clear the gover- nor wants to re-engage in the debate. Our caucus showed an incredible amount of leadership by laying all of our cards on the table and producing a balanced budget plan. I call on him and the De- mocrats to put forth their balanced budget plan so we can move ahead. Any- thing less would show a lack of leadership,” he said. According to Knapp, House Republicans took steps last week to fulfill their constitutional respon- sibility to pass a balanced budget. They are working to pass both budgets and a revenue package through the House of Representa- tives in order to give the Senate an actual budget package. The governor issued a letter last week condemning the House for this action, Knapp said.. “The governor,” he said, “put forth a revised budget that called for $5.05 billion for education. Since then, our economy has slumped and our state is in a deeper hole, yet the governor is demanding increased spending with no specific proposal to pay for it,” said Knopp. “He owes it to Oregonians to support a budget based in the real- ity of today’s economic environment. “We are working within the parameters the Governor set forth for the session,” Knopp said. “We are funding education at the level he asked for, not once, but twice. We are trying to restore the confi- dence and accountability in government by forcing government to live within its means. And we have proposed a balanced budget that funds vital public services without asking Oregonians for a general tax increase. “Gov. Kulongoski has changed the goal posts since April and he needs to show Oregonians how he plans to accomplish his goals of increased spend- ing without over burdening taxpayers. Our state needs consistency and leadership from our executive office, not empty rhetoric. Republicans will join with the governor to dis- cuss further reductions in budgets to meet his spend- ing goals, if that is the di- rection he wants to move. But we need to know where he stand,” Knopp said. He pointed to the gov- ernor’s own website which states, “I’m not going to ask the Legislature, and I’m not going to ask the citizens of Oregon to raise taxes. We will make do with what we have.” Forestland covers almost half of Oregon, says forestry dept. Of the 62 million acres of land in Oregon, approxi- mately 28 million acres -- 45 percent -- are classified as forestland. The Oregon Dept. of Forestry defines forestland as at least 10 percent cov- ered with live trees or for- merly having such cover, and not currently devel- oped for non-forest use. During the past four centuries, the amount of forestland in the state has remained fairly constant, with about 8 percent hav- ing been lost to human development -- agriculture, urban growth, highways, electric transmission lines and other infrastructure -- since Europeans first vis- ited the Northwest. Of the 30 million acres of forestland present in Oregon in the 1630s, ap- proximately 2.5 million acres have been converted to non-forest use. Oregon’s landmark land-use laws are helping to keep the state’s forestland intact while in many other states forests often are converted to non- forest uses. The federal govern- ment owns 57 percent of Ore gon’s for estlan d. “Federal government” is comprised of the U.S. For- est Service, Bureau of Land Management, Na- tional Park Service, and the Dept. of Fish & Wild- life. The state, counties and municipalities own 4 per- cent. Large commercial land owners own 22 per- cent; non-industrial private land owners 16 percent; Native American tribes 1 percent. All of Oregon’s forests have some level of legal protections -- laws and rules that include restric- tions on management ac- tivities. About 23 percent of the state’s forestland (6.3 million acres) is classified as “reserved.” This is for- estland not open for timber production, and includes wilderness areas, old- growth reserves, and na- tional parks and monu- ments. Another 18 percent (some 5 million acres) is incapable of producing significant wood for com- mercial purposes, gener- ally due to adverse site conditions. The remaining 59 per- cent (16 million) acres is available, though not nec- essarily used, for wood production. This includes federal and non-federal public ownerships, tribal forests, non-industrial pri- vate forests and large com- mercial forests. It is important to note that the 38 percent of Ore- gon’s forestland that is privately owned currently produces most of Oregon’s commercial timber, whereas most of the 57 percent that is federally owned is managed primar- ily to emphasize mature forest habitat or other con- servation and recreation values and not wood pro- duction. As a result, actual an- nual harvest on federal land has declined from around 5 billion board feet ni the 1980s to less than 0.2 billion board feet dur- ing 2001. Oregon’s wood and paper products are sold in all 50 states and some 40 foreign countries. More than 5,000 products we use every day are made from wood, and perhaps you walked on it, wore it, brushed your teeth with it, slept on it, were in a build- ing constructed from it, or read a newspaper, book or computer printout made with it. Oregon’s Total Indus- trial Output (TIO) for its natural resource areas -- forest, agriculture, recrea- tion and tourism, and ma- rine -- amounts to $25.9 billion, which is nearly 13 percent of the state TIO. (Editor’s Note: The pre- ceding article is based on information contained in a booklet, “Forest Fact Book,” published by The Oregon Forest Resources Institute). Senior Nutrition Menu Sponsored by 592-3562 (541) 592-2126, 474-5440 Meals are served in the CJ County Bldg. 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