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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2018
Some question a special session on tax break
By CLAIRE
WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Some observ-
ers say Gov. Kate Brown’s call
for a special legislative ses-
sion has more to do with pol-
itics than making the Oregon
tax code more equitable.
Brown, a Democrat run-
ning for re-election this year,
said Friday she’ll call a spe-
cial session sometime before
the end of June to extend to
owners of sole proprietorships
the special tax rates passed in
2013 for owners of other small
businesses.
At the same time, she
announced she’d sign Senate
Bill 1528, a bill that prevents
owners of certain businesses
— sole proprietorships, lim-
ited liability companies, part-
nerships and S-corporations
— whose business income
passes through to their per-
sonal income taxes from tak-
ing a new federal tax deduc-
tion on their state taxes.
Supporters say that bill
was necessary to plug a bud-
get hole caused by federal tax
reform. Critics call the mea-
sure a $244 million tax hike.
Brown said it’s not fair to
give another break to LLCs,
partnerships and S-corpora-
tions when sole proprietor-
ships can’t get the favorable
tax rates passed by the state in
2013.
But state Sen. Brian
Boquist, R-Dallas, sees the
special session as a political
gambit.
“This is about politics not
policy,” Boquist wrote in an
email on Monday.
The lower tax rates were
initially engineered in 2013
during a special session as part
of a package referred to as the
“Grand Bargain.”
“Sole proprietors were kept
out of the 2013 special session
bill as the Democrats did not
want to lose anymore revenue
by adding them into the state
(pass-through entity) law,”
Boquist wrote. “Since I was in
the room, I know this as fact.
Now after raising taxes $244
‘This is about politics
not policy.’
Sen. Brian Boquist
R-Dallas
million this biennium, and
placing the funds in the ending
balance, they want to be able
to campaign on ‘tax cuts.’”
Boquist also says the Legis-
lature could wait until the 2019
regular session to extend the
lower rates to sole proprietor-
ships. That would still allow
those business owners to opt
in to the rates for the 2018 tax
year, Boquist says.
After efforts to make
broader changes to the state’s
corporate tax system stalled
last session, Democrats are
poised to try for a broader rev-
enue overhaul again in the
2019 session. Adding the sole
proprietorship provision into
the mix could complicate that
agenda.
Sen. Mark Hass, D-Bea-
verton, chairman of the Senate
Finance and Revenue Com-
mittee, said he supports the
governor’s efforts.
In fact, the provision was
initially a component of SB
1528, Hass said.
“It didn’t seem to move
them (Republicans),” Hass
said Monday. “They just
wanted to connect to the fed-
eral tax bill and didn’t care
what other things we did.”
But Hass said that the top
priority was to disconnect
from the federal pass-through
deduction, which was part
of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
signed into law by President
Donald Trump in December.
“(Senate President) Peter
Courtney and I decided, let’s
just get the clean bill through
and not try to save the world,”
Hass said.
Boquist maintains rela-
tively few sole proprietorships
would benefit from the pro-
posed change.
The Legislative Revenue
Office is working to figure out
just how many Oregon taxpay-
ers could be affected by that
tweak to the state tax code.
Early estimates suggest
there are about 250,000 sole
proprietorships in Oregon,
said Legislative Revenue Offi-
cer Chris Allanach.
It’s not clear how many
meet the qualifications for the
lower tax rates, though, Alla-
nach said.
In order to qualify an owner
or partner of a pass-through
business has to make active
income, such as tangible sales,
rather than passive income
such as rental property, and
employ at least one person
who works 1,200 hours a year.
Jim Moore, director of the
Tom McCall Center for Policy
Innovation, noted that the bud-
get doesn’t require the imme-
diate attention of a special ses-
sion, which have been called
in the past when the state has
faced recessions or severe dips
in revenues.
“This is not a special ses-
sion that is really required
because of the budget,” Moore
said. “This is clearly a special
session that is more for politi-
cal reasons.”
Brown’s office did not
comment on the contention
that the special session was a
campaign or politically-ori-
ented move.
The state’s constitution
doesn’t allow the governor
to limit the topic of a special
session.
Historically,
successful
special sessions have stayed
in their lane, and also benefit
from plenty of advance plan-
ning, Moore said.
“Absolutely, they can do
more than one topic,” Moore
said. “So it’s up to the leader-
ship of the Legislature to make
sure they stay on track.”
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
Foresters in Idaho look to protect trees from black bears
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
For more than two decades,
Monika Wood has been part of
an effort to re-establish trees
native to the forests of north-
ern Idaho.
They include western white
pine and western larch, which
are planted for their resistance
to fires, insects and disease.
“We’re really trying to
restore what should be here
historically,” said Wood, north
zone culturist for Idaho Pan-
handle National Forests.
But Wood and other forest-
ers have to deal with a pest.
A really big pest, one that
can grow to about 600 pounds,
reach 5 to 7 feet tall standing on
its hind legs and has big claws.
It’s the black bear.
Much to the consternation
of foresters, white pine and
western larch are the exact spe-
cies favored by black bears as
they emerge from their winter
hibernation.
Wood has worked at the
Priest Lake ranger station for
23 years, and said bears snack-
ing on the trees has been a con-
sistent problem.
“When they come out of
their den, they want those sug-
ars and it just so happens those
trees are really starting to wake
up, too, so they smell deli-
cious,” Wood said.
Bark damage
The bears love to peel bark
off the trees to munch the newly
formed sapwood beneath. If
they scrape it all off, it kills the
tree, taking away the xylem and
phloem in the cambium of the
tree, which would otherwise
allow water to move from the
roots up the tree stem, said Ron
Durham, land resource supervi-
sor at the Idaho Department of
Lands office at Priest Lake.
A single bear can strip as
many as 70 trees a day, a U.S.
Department of Agriculture
study found.
“Sometimes it’s just one
side,” he said. “Sometimes it’s
Idaho Department of Fish and Game
Black bears are damaging beneficial tree stands in the Priest Lake Basin in northern Ida-
ho. Foresters are working to find ways to stop the bears, including barriers and targeted
hunting. The bears appear to have learned the behavior.
not all the way around but still,
that just slows the growth of
the tree down and damages the
wood.”
The damage makes it easier
for insects to infest the wounds,
and for diseases and fungi to
enter the wood, Durham said.
“When you manufacture
that log, if and when the tree
does become harvestable, that
first 8 to 10 feet’s probably
going to be all rotten,” he said.
Site, elevation and snow-
pack level vary, but trees in
Priest Lake typically reach 70
years old.
“At age 35 to 40, we go into
a stand and see that it’s been hit
— we’d normally want to hold
onto that stand another 20 to
30 more years,” Durham said.
“But then damage affects the
growth.”
Once bears hit a particular
area, they know they can return
and cause even more dam-
age. Some areas are hit several
years, Durham said.
The cost of the damage adds
up for the state and federal gov-
ernments and a handful of pri-
vate landowners in the region,
many of whom raise the forests
to supplement their farming or
ranching income.
In 2014, the Department
of Lands estimated financial
losses on Priest Lake endow-
ment lands due to tree mor-
tality from bears. Five sites
were inspected, and the cost of
the bear damage was $968 to
$1,582 per acre.
Wood estimates it costs
about $200 per acre to plant
new trees. Seedlings cost $1 to
$2.
“It’s something we’ve been
struggling with for quite some
time,” said Durham, of the
Idaho Department of Lands.
However, the damage has
become more costly in the last
10 years, mainly due to bears
damaging younger stands.
Black bears also eat lodge-
pole, cedar and ponderosa pine,
but their favorites are definitely
white pine and larch, Wood
said.
“It’s an easy, fast food
source for them, and they don’t
have to work very hard at it,”
she said. “I know it’s been hap-
pening for as long as black
bears have been in the Priest
Lake Basin. It’s just part of
nature. I just think the checks
and balances are out of whack
a little bit, maybe.”
Managers estimate one
black bear per square mile in
the Priest Lake Basin — one
of the highest densities in the
state, Durham said.
The
entire
185,000-
acre state forest has damage
throughout, he said.
The biological carrying
capacity is 1.5 to two bears per
square mile, said Kiira Siitari,
environmental staff biologist
with the Idaho Department of
Fish and Game.
‘A new tool’
The behavior appears to be
learned, said Chris Schnepf,
University of Idaho Extension
educator for forestry in Coeur
d’Alene.
“I think it’s just a new tool in
the bear toolbox,” he said. “One
bear figured it out and taught
the cubs, and then those cubs
grow up and teach their cubs.”
Forest stewards hope to find
a way to help the bears unlearn
the behavior.
“Since it’s passed on
socially, you hope those bears
don’t get out much,” Schnepf
said with a laugh.
Wood has tried directional
felling of trees to create slash
mats that bears don’t like to
climb through or over — “make
them work a little harder” —
and found limited success.
“The bears sometimes stay
away, but often it just causes
them to go higher in the can-
opy,” Wood said.
Managers also tried leaving
8-inch spacing between trees to
create a bear barrier.
“And that hasn’t worked,”
Wood said. “They go after
unpruned trees with cano-
pies all the way down to the
bottom.”
The bears may be going
after trees with blister rust can-
kers. Trees send sugars to points
of injury to seal off infections,
Wood said.
“It’s been a struggle,” she
said.
To help protect older trees,
foresters are directing hunt-
ers to specific areas where the
bears are targeting trees that
are 30 to 40 years old, particu-
larly white pine stands, said Sii-
tari, the biologist for the game
department.
“We’re a little limited on
reaction time,” she said. “A lot
of times when you go out and
see the damage, it’s years old.
So that’s a big frustration.”
Black bears are managed
as a big game species. In other
parts of Idaho, dogs and hunt-
ing over bait may be used. But
because the grizzly bears that
are also in the area are feder-
ally protected as an endangered
species, dogs and bait aren’t
allowed in most of northern
Idaho.
The Priest Lake area is in
grizzly bear country, which
limits black bear management
options, Siitari said.
The cause of the damage
appears to be limited to black
bears, Schnepf said.
The game department is
considering extending the hunt-
ing season, which is currently
April 1 to June 15. No expan-
sion dates have been proposed,
Siitari said.
Any season changes would
be subject to public comment
and the approval of the Idaho
Fish and Game Commission.
The earliest that process
could begin is next year, Sii-
tari said.
About 150 to 200 black
bears are harvested each year.
Because of the grizzly
restrictions, increasing harvest
quotas may not help foresters
in Priest Lake, Siitari said.
“This is an evolving issue,”
Siitari said.
Durham, with the lands
department, hopes num-
bers become available in
future years to show whether
increased hunting has helped.
“What do you do? We’ve
been managing an asset for 30
to 40 years, and all of a sudden,
that asset gets wiped out by a
bunch of bears,” he said. “We’re
working diligently, methodi-
cally and thoughtfully trying to
resolve (the situation).”
Through good communica-
tion with the game department
and the public, Durham hopes
to help reduce tree mortality
to “a level we can accept,” he
said.
Feed the bears?
Most research indicates the
best option is to feed the bears,
which would be too costly for
resource managers, Wood said.
Black bears are also a prob-
lem in parts of western Ore-
gon and Washington, where
agencies do feed the bears. But
Schnepf, with University of
Idaho Extension, said that can
be controversial.
“One is the whole issue of
feeding wildlife — there’s a
number of issues associated
with that,” he said. “The other
is that you’re giving these bears
food at a time when they’re
most limited. Do you end up
growing more bears as a result
of that and just making the
problem even worse?”
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