By Daniel Simmons-Ritchie

Coos County’s commissioners are backing the first draft of federal legislation that would replace the loss of millions in federal timber money from the O&C Lands to county governments.

Democrats Peter DeFazio (D-Springfield), Greg Walden (R-Hood River), and Kurt Schrader (D-Canby) on Thursday unveiled a bill, months in the writing, which they hope will keep rural Oregon counties solvent.

The legislation would compensate 18 rural Oregon counties for lost revenue from the so-called O&C lands — 2.6 million acres of forestland, remnants of an 1866 land grant to the failed Oregon and California Railroad, that can’t be taxed or used locally because it’s owned by the federal government.

Under the representatives’ plan, Oregon’s O&C lands, managed by the Bureau of Land Management, would be divided in two. One half would be managed as harvestable timberland with payments going to the counties. The other half would be managed as conservation land.

‘Impact would be huge’

Commissioner Fred Messerle said Friday the counties had been waiting months to see the details of the three lawmakers’ plan. While he hadn’t had a close look at the discussion draft yet, he supported what he had heard.

“The economic impact would be huge to our region,” Messerle said.

Commissioner Cam Parry said that while the bill would have a tough road ahead in both the House and Senate, it was amazing it had gotten as far as it had.

“It took an awful lot of negotiations to get it where it is,” Parry said.

Commissioner Bob Main did not return phone calls before publication, but has strongly supported the proposal in the past.

No revenue estimated

If passed, the legislation could forestall massive budget deficits for Coos County over the next few years.

Squeezed between a huge loss of revenue and state restrictions on how much a county can increase its property taxes, rural Oregon counties face a struggle to provide basic services to their residents. Curry County is expecting to go broke this summer. By the 2013-14 financial year, Coos County is projected to have a 25% gap between income and expenses.

DeFazio, speaking in a conference call with reporters Thursday, said the plan balances the long-term economic needs of Oregon counties with protections for old-growth forest.

“Long term, it would provide critical services to our counties in Oregon, it would provide for employment, and it would provide long term conservation benefits,” DeFazio said.

But he said there were no calculations yet on how much revenue his new proposal could generate for counties.

“We have not estimated the harvest levels, and we don’t mandate any,” he said.

Bill faces obstacles

DeFazio conceded that the plan will face challenges in the Republican-controlled House.

Because counties like Curry and Josephine are so close to the brink, and because it would take several years to set up the new system, Oregon’s congressmen are pushing for  temporary payments or loans to counties as a safety net. But in the past few weeks, the House Resource Committee has debated whether these short-term payments are an “earmark.”

“That’s a big question mark for the majority, for the Republicans,” DeFazio said.

Tuesday, House Commitee on Natural Resources chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) introduced HB 4019, a similar bill that would provide for payments to all counties with federal timber land, not just the O&C Lands counties.

DeFazio said he couldn’t say whether the Oregon trio would consider incorporating their bill into HB4019.

The bill is available online on the websites of DeFazio, Walden, and Schrader.

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