7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017
Timber suit: Forest
products industry
averages $13 billion
in yearly sales
Continued from Page 1A
action item Monday, but
took no action. The Seaside
School District also took no
action and will remain in
the claim.
Views on lawsuit
as director of the Port of Port-
land. The agency announced
earlier this month that Wyatt
would retire in June. In his
entourage was deputy execu-
tive director and heir apparent
Curtis Robinhold.
While Port commission-
ers and Jewell School Board
members made no comment
about their decisions, the
college’s meeting, lasting
less than 10 minutes in front
of a packed crowd, included
a roundtable presentation
for board members to share
their views on the lawsuit.
Board member Anne
Teaford-Cantor, who voted
to opt out, said she had orig-
inally been for staying in
the lawsuit, but changed her
opinion after an earlier exec-
utive session, during which
the college board met with
Linn County Commissioner
Roger Nyquist and the coun-
ty’s lawyer in the case, John
DiLorenzo.
“I think that the money
(for a settlement) would
have to come from some-
where, and I also base this
on 20 years of experience
in and around the legal pro-
fession,” Cantor said. “The
expectations for how much
we might get out of (a settle-
ment) are high.”
Choke point
Fiscal responsibilities
On Monday night in Til-
lamook, Wyatt said, he heard
from two brothers — a trucker
and a farmer, both members of
the Tillamook County Cream-
ery Association — who need
to get goods to the creamery’s
processing facility in Board-
man. The focus of their com-
plaints about transportation
was not on fixing problems in
Tillamook County, he said, but
on the gridlock in Portland.
Wyatt said he’s heard similar
concerns from shippers in the
Willamette Valley and other
regions, all stymied by grid-
lock in the state’s largest met-
ropolitan area.
“As a legislator 30 years
ago, that’s not something I
would have heard here or any-
where else in nonurban Ore-
gon,” he said.
Wyatt said Oregon has
ignored transportation for too
long and is falling behind Cal-
ifornia and Washington state,
which have made significant,
tax-funded investments in
infrastructure.
“If we do nothing in Ore-
gon this year, the state of Idaho
will spend more on road sys-
tem improvements than Ore-
gon will,” he said. “And …
Idaho’s a state that’s about 10
percent our size.”
Wyatt said the possibility
of a big transportation pack-
age only comes along about
once every decade, but that
Gov. Kate Brown’s adminis-
tration has broached the pos-
sibility this year. Oregon has
revenue challenges and a pro-
jected budget shortfall, but
lagging infrastructure, he said,
is a weight around the ankles
Board members Karen
Burke, Robert Duehmig
and Chairwoman Rosemary
Baker-Monaghan,
who
voted to stay in, said their
primary fiscal responsibil-
ities are to make the best
decision for the college and
its students.
“I don’t think that if we
were to opt out that it would
make any difference in
whether the suit would go
forward or not,” Burke said.
Baker-Monaghan, who
has a background in the for-
est industry, said her opin-
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Guests listen to a presentation about transportation during an event Tuesday at the Barbey Maritime Center.
Transportation: ‘We have a
number of obstacles in front of us’
Continued from Page 1A
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
State Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose, listens to Port of Portland Executive Director
Bill Wyatt speak during an event on transportation.
of the regional economy.
“That’s a big message from
me to you,” Wyatt said. “Tax
increases aren’t any fun. It’s
a big challenge to be sure.
But if we don’t continue to
make some progress on this
front, we’re just going to get
behind.”
‘Get to yes’
State Sen. Betsy John-
son explained efforts to pass a
large transportation bill amid
an estimated $1.8 billion bud-
get shortfall and the voter
rejection of a sales tax measure
in November that would have
raised an estimated $3 billion a
year in new revenue.
Johnson helped pass what
she called the state’s last major
transportation package, the
Jobs and Transportation Act in
2009, and is part of the Joint
Committee on Transportation
Preservation and Moderniza-
tion, a collection of 14 legis-
lators trying to pass another
package this year.
“We probably have, con-
servatively, $20 billion worth
of unfulfillable expectations,”
Johnson, D-Scappoose, said of
all the transportation requests
she’s heard in meetings around
the state.
Gas tax increases have
failed nine times, Johnson said,
and there is a more embold-
ened environmental commu-
nity such as cyclists, electric
car-drivers and pedestrians
who don’t contribute to the
transportation budget through
gas taxes but want a bigger
piece of the budget.
“I remain cautiously — I
won’t say optimistic — cau-
tiously encouraged that we
will be able to do something,”
she said. “But we have a num-
ber of obstacles in front of us.
“And the message that I
have been sharing with what-
ever group I get to appear in
front of is you all have con-
stituencies that you go back
and associate your views, and
your politics and your activ-
ism with. Tell everybody to get
their ‘get to yes’ face on.”
Tax reform: Gov. Brown laid out several new
taxes to address the state’s revenue shortfall
Continued from Page 1A
has largely distanced her-
self from the push for rev-
enue reform since the fail-
ure of Measure 97, which she
endorsed. In her proposed bud-
get last month, Brown laid out
several new taxes to address
the state’s revenue shortfall but
excluded any that would raise
business taxes.
“She has seven taxes we’re
supposed to vote on individu-
ally, but basically, long-term
she’s thinking 2018,” Court-
ney said. “This also compli-
cates this long-term perfect
fix” that some lawmakers are
pursuing.
In an email to the EO
Media Group/Pamplin Media
Group Capital Bureau, Chris
Pair, a spokesman for Brown,
did not address the governor’s
preference for timing in reve-
nue reform.
“The cuts proposed put
into human terms the dev-
astating consequences fam-
ilies face with a tax system
that is unstable, inadequate,
and fundamentally out of bal-
ance to meet Oregon’s essen-
tial needs,” Pair wrote in the
email. “While Gov. Brown
will continue working hard to
make sure state government
does more with less, she main-
tains that we must work to
develop a long-term solution
that doesn’t put Oregonians at
risk every two years.
“Gov. Brown looks forward
to working with legislators,
business leaders and advocates
to come together on these
tough choices and build a bud-
get and revenue package that
keeps the doors of opportunity
open for all Oregonians.”
Kotek said this year is the
best time for lawmakers to
reform the revenue system.
“I don’t want to wait until
’18 because we might be deal-
ing with a whole different set
of problems … because of
what the federal government
decides to do,” Kotek said.
“There is a lot of unknowns on
the horizon.”
If public unions, business
leaders and lawmakers aren’t
serious about negotiating a
solution to the revenue sys-
tem this year, then “we have
to move on and stick to dead-
lines,” Kotek said. Lawmak-
ers could look at just making a
combination of cuts and small
tax increases to address the
revenue shortfall.
“The next month or so we
have a window of opportunity
to talk about something bigger,
and it’s going to be up to other
Oregonians besides us trying
to push them to come to the
table,” Kotek said.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
ions on forest manage-
ment don’t matter to the
case. Based on public input
received, she said, it could
be difficult for the college
to pass a bond, increase tui-
tion or support the founda-
tion if the suit prevails and
the college passed up on a
settlement.
Board member Patrick
Wingard ran off a slew of
facts about the forest prod-
ucts industry, which he
said averages $13 billion in
yearly sales and comprises
11 percent of the state’s eco-
nomic output.
“I, too, feel it’s my
responsibility to the college,
to the students, to our staff,
to the institution, to the com-
munity, to ensure we make
the best decisions that are
in our fiscal health,” he said.
“I feel that decision is to opt
out.”
Board member Tessa
Scheller said the lawsuit is
about increased timber har-
vests instead of helping stu-
dents. A vote to opt out, she
said, respects ongoing edu-
cation and public discourse
around the forest’s greatest
permanent value, while the
lawsuit could result in an
even bigger budget deficit
than the state already faces.
“What I see as the big-
gest problem is the very
twisted coupling of educa-
tion and state forestry prac-
tices and policies, much like
the state lottery being cou-
pled to parks and water-
shed protections,” she said.
“Gambling advocates can
disingenuously argue that
gambling does good things,
when in fact it’s a social
problem disguised as a sin
tax. Funding for education
and forest policy deserve to
be evaluated on their sepa-
rate merits.”
Board member Esther
Moberg was not present, but
submitted a vote to opt out
via email.
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