Oregon Plans to Fund Wildfire Fight With Fresh Taxes on Tobacco, Timber, and Property Owners
Oregon Governor Tina Kotek has thrown her support behind proposed legislation that would impose a range of taxes on products to raise money to combat wildfires.
House Bill 3940 has passed the House of Representatives and will now pass to the Senate for consideration.
Proposed new taxation includes nicotine pouches, such as Rogue and Zyn – 65 cents on pouches containing 20 or less, and three cents per pouch on larger packages.
The bill also raises the tax on logging, up from 62.5 cents to $1 for every 1,000 feet of board harvested.
Also under consideration is increasing the minimum fire protection fee paid by homeowners from $18.75 to between $20 and $25.
A highlight for property owners living in areas prone to wildfires is that lawmakers propose to create a grant to help them finance the cost of improving fire safety precautions on their properties.
The Governor has clearly stated that unless lawmakers can resolve funding for wildfires before the end of this legislative session, she would like to allocate all $161 million from the state’s reserve fund to wildfire prevention. Instead, the bill proposes an allocation of $32.2 million, representing 20% of the fund.
If signed into law by the Governor, the new legislation will become effective in September.
Is that all you can do? You need more money so let’s just raise taxes!! That is BS! How bout you do your job and manage the money you already have. Take it from elsewhere and stop burdening the tax payers.
What kinds of loop-holes is she leaving for the Hedge Fund owners of traditional low and middle-income rentals in Oregon? She obviously isn’t going to do anything about the gravy train she set up for them to get 10% rental increases in perpetuity, as long as perpetuity remains in hard economic times, otherwise the increase will revert to 7% per year. This is easy money for slum lords.