What do coastal residents propose?

  • A small woodland logger holds a chainsaw

    No increase for the little guy

    The proposed tax would not apply to small woodland owners with less than 5,000 acres. The loggers, the truckers, and foresters who are the backbone of Oregon’s industry would not be impacted

  • Big corporate timber companies pay their fair share

    A simple solution exists - a 6% tax on the value of the timber cut from Oregon’s forests. This isn’t new. Companies like Weyerhaeuser and Hampton used to pay taxes like this until the late 90’s.

  • Happy firefighters standing in front of a fire truck

    Restore support for first responders, libraries, roads

    Right now, small towns across Oregon struggle to fund essential services - fire, police, libraries. The funding crisis impacts the quality of life across Oregon. Restoring fair tax for big corporations would help fund basic services.

Read the Proposal Made by Coastal Residents

Do you think rural communities need more funding for emergency services? Scroll down if you do.

 

If the tax on corporate logging companies were the same today as the 1980s, rural Oregon would have an extra $100 million per year.

That would be money for better schools, rural health care, roads, expanding broadband networks, law enforcement, firefighters and equipment-- instead all that money went into the pockets of rich executives and corporate shareholders.

 

Restoring corporate timber tax could prevent fire disasters like the ones hundreds of Oregonians have already lived through.

Wildires happen. But that doesn’t have to mean that towns burn down. With proper corporate logging taxes (for companies owning over 5k acres), rural towns could once again afford emergency services like enough 911 dispatch operators, updated fire fighting trucks and equipment, and more trained first responders.

Should Wall Street companies really pay 100 times less property tax per acre than homeowners?

Falls City, Oregon supported the timber industry for decades. Today, the town suffers from tax breaks given to large logging corporations:

“But the jobs and services have dried up, and the town is going broke. The library closed two years ago. And as many as half of the families in Falls City live on weekly food deliveries from the Mountain Gospel Fellowship.”

-OPB: Big money bought Oregon's forests, small timber communities are paying the price

 

Corporate Takeover of Oregon’s Forests, Structured to Avoid Taxation.

An investigation by OPB, The Oregonian and Pro Publica confirmed that 4.4 million acres in Western Oregon are in industrial ownership. 62% of these lands are owned in complex corporate entities designed to avoid taxation (e.g. Real Estate Investment Trust “REIT”). Coastal residents have combed through the data and produced maps that show how these large corporate owners dominate the forested landscape in Clatsop, Tillamook, Curry, Douglas, Coos, Lincoln and Lane Counties.

Restoring timber taxes puts rural Oregon first

More resources

Who will become Oregon’s next governor? Here is a great resource for learning how candidates have voted in the past: http://scorecard.olcv.org/2021/house/  (see the tabs at the top of the page) and here is a site with information on Betsy Johnson, who has received large donations from timber, mining, and oil corporations: https://www.corporateboughtbetsyoregon.com/ 

Oregon towns need timber taxes to come back