Highway Robbery

by Mike Crouse

Today's crop of elected officials seems incapable of actually making tough decisions during challenging economic times. While speaking passionately on public responsibilities, the evils of greed and importance of creating jobs, what we're seeing with alarming frequency is the inability to actually reduce the size of government, reduce the number of services, and operate efficiently while being conscious of how their decisions can have dire unintended consequences. The primary mission appears to be in protecting, rather than actually doing, their job.

This appears particularly so for the LEFT coast (OR, WA, and CA), where the legislatures leadership is so myopic they do their very best to kill the golden goose of free enterprise that funds government.
The Oregon legislature's recent list of legislative achievements demonstrated their social compassion by, amongst other things, eliminating the Oregon School for the Blind, which existed over 100 years, including the Great Depression, throwing blind youth beneath the bus with no funding and no place to go for the services they absolutely need to exist. Yet the number of state employees continues to climb... nice going Oregon!

Of course it didn't stop there, but continued in a long list of taxes and fees passed by the legislature and pushed onto businesses that've been making tough decisions, and eking out an existence in tough times. Democracy requires participation, and the "Committee to End Highway Robbery" is actively planning to reverse those. First some specifics: The 2009 legislature passed HS2001 that implemented enormous increases in the cost of operating any type of motor vehicle, at a time when Oregon is ranked among the highest states in rate of unemployment and was further piled upon by the two recent tax increases which give our state the dubious distinction of the highest in the union in both minimum corporate tax and personal income tax.

Vehicle related increases passed by the legislature included raising the state's gas tax by 25%, substantially increasing the cost to register cars and more than doubling the fee to register trucks. In addition, the weight-mile taxes paid by every commercial truck on the road rose by 25%.

The Committee to End Highway Robbery formed near the end of the last legislative session to combat the assault on the trucking industry and the resulting price increases which are then passed on to consumers. The group, spearheaded by Chief Petitioners Don McIntire and Chuck Ireland (Myrtle Creek), Charlie Tindall, Leon Fischer and Eric Winters seeks to amend the Oregon Constitution by requiring vehicle and fuel tax/fee increases be voted on, rather than passed by the legislature.

In November 2009, the committee filed the initiative petition to require that HB2001 taxes face a public vote. Their ballot title was cleared by the Oregon Supreme Court on March 25, 2010 and shortly after being given the green light, on April 7, the first signatures hit the petition pages.

In addition to repealing increases passed during the last legislative session, the measure will set up a process to require voter approval of vehicle and fuel taxes passed after 2008.

It would also require future tax/fee increases first get approval by the voters. The only exception would be to allow an increase by the legislature of not more than 3%, every two years, subject to specific conditions. In addition to addressing state legislature passed increases, the measure would phase out existing local city and county gas taxes which were not approved by local voters.

The committee has until July 2, 2010 to collect and verify 110,358 signatures of registered voters. They plan to hire petition gathers and thanks to many gas station owners, who have already given their approval, will approach customers as they are filling up their vehicles. "We've done test runs in multiple locations and we find that about 80% of gas station customers sign our petitions (gladly!)."
The committee is requesting financial support to pay for the cost of assembling, training, and coordinating the circulation team. Send check to:" Committee to End Highway Robbery, PO Box 1304, Silverton, OR 97381. Learn more by visiting www.gastaxpetitions.com

Our congratulations to the Committee to End Highway Robbery in their effort to right the ship of state and reign in government. Go to their site, and particularly if you're in Oregon, lend a hand, sign a petition, and vote.

Whose responsibility is safety?

Most loggers are acutely aware of safety in the work place, and our record in making logging a far safer occupation over the past few decades is evidence of that success. That's one issue we certainly can agree on from the board rooms, to corporate offices to the crummy, safety should be job one.

But in traveling throughout the country, particularly in the steep slopes in much of the west, we're seeing a trend that deserves some attention and action to divert an increasingly dangerous circumstance we see on tight landings. There's nothing new with tight landings, however with the mills seeking greater efficiency so they have pure sorts on a load delivered to the mill, the logger has a dilemma: sorting on the landing (which most are doing) or hauling to a separate site to sort and reload trailers.

Reloading and resorting is expensive, which is why most mills ended resorting yards. Sorting on a narrow landing, where you may have upwards of a dozen or more sorts means there are logs stacked above, below, and along the roadway, with multiple sorts multiplying the handling, and pressing the safety envelope to the max as landings must be kept as small as possible. It is an accident waiting to happen, which must be dealt with.

There's little you can do about the terrain we work in, however where you know you'll have multiple sorts to deal with, landing sizes must be increased to accommodate the sort decks and assure safety on the site. Certainly this is a change most land owners or managers will not be thrilled over, but it is a solution, which begs to be implemented before someone is seriously hurt or killed.

We are all committed to safety and efficiency, particularly in today's economics. It is time we recognize today's efficiencies demand the same safety standards we'd had prior to multiple sorts on the landing. Isn't it worth it for safer logging, and assuring that all of your crew returns home to their family every night?

A gradual improvement

What we're seeing and hearing at the various state and regional conferences, reflects what we'd been told by economists over a year ago: that we were almost at the bottom of the economic decline (in 2009) and that the recovery would not mirror the steep decline, but would be prolonged and drawn out at a more gradual pace.

While economists typically are known for their ability to analyze what's occurred far better than predicting the future, the trio we'd heard from (Greg Lewis with Resource Information Systems, Dr. Charley McKetta with (Professor Emeritus) Univ. of Idaho, and Dr. Lynn Michaelis, Weyerhaeuser's head economist) were uniform in their message and right on the mark.

For much of the west crews are working, with some work ahead as well, in what appears to be the gradually improving markets that had been predicted. Caution is still the order of the day; however even with the caution we're seeing some purchasing and hiring now that was not even hinted at a year ago... definitely a good sign.

The economists' original estimates were based on increased housing demand versus demand as the existing supply of new homes was purchased... which appears to have been correct. There've been a few other contributing factors as well, not the least of which has been the Chilean earthquake and accompanying disruption of their mills and infrastructure, which provided a hole in the supply chain readily filled by U.S. domestic mills. A nice boost for export timber prices, which you can rest assured the Chilean economic forces are looking to resolve, restore production and retain those markets for themselves.

The other boost came from the federal government's recently expired $8,000 first time home buyers program that likely encouraged some to enter into the housing market a bit earlier to capture the $8,000 windfall from the fed. You cannot fault the new home buyer for taking $8,000 in essentially "free" money (although that comes from our ever-burgeoning national debt), but this is a home purchase that would have occurred regardless, thus once again our government interference in the markets serves to yet again distort, rather than energize, the marketplace.

The fundamentals that brought this mess to the economy still linger on in the dirge of homes from the past several years purchased and financed with a host of financial vehicles based on magical thinking and computer models, which essentially encouraged the dream that straw (or similar waste materials) could magically be transformed into gold, and that there would always be buyers for homes because the market never goes down.

Thus economics theory meets economic reality with a very large thud, or as in this most recent example a very large splat with reverberations that are likely to stay in the marketplace for some while, and a resurgence of some sanity and accountability.

What's left for the logging industry is a growing market with fewer logging companies, fewer mills, and growing market for eco-friendly, eco-sustainable, biodegradable products we produce.

The undeniable other factor is the aging work force of skilled loggers, whose average age remains in the mid-50s across the nation. Certainly we've seen a good many bright, energetic capable younger men these past several years, which is very encouraging. But in the next decade retaining and attracting a crew will be an expanding challenge leading to a shortage of qualified work force.

The public's change in public land policy has essentially abandoned the National Forests to the whims of nature and the courts leaving no reliable supply from the source in the foreseeable future and zero interest in congress to provide direction or clarity.

While this is good news to private forestlands and working forests that only holds true once you harvest the standing asset of the forest and turn that into cash.

Corporate America is starting to recognize the coming crunch for loggers to harvest this crop and maintain public license to in fact manage those timberlands responsibly, sustainably, and in an ecologically acceptable manner. We are still waiting to see if this recognition results in higher prices for logging that rewards loggers with an income commensurate with the effort and risks associated with the business. We view this in the same light as the Fram oil filter commercials of the 90s: "Pay me now, or pay me later."

What brought the 50-80s generation of loggers into the business was the opportunity to make very good money, along with those other benefits of this business. What will keep and draw the younger generation into the business tomorrow is the same thing: opportunity and money. "Show me the money," and you'll have the best and brightest, even though their generational mind-set is very different from that of previous generations. No money... no way.

Mark your calendars

Coming up in September of this year is the 6th Pacific Logging Congress "In-The-Woods" Active Equipment Show, held on the Longview Fibre Timberlands just outside Clatskanie, Oregon. The show will have a three day run, September 16-18 and features the latest in harvesting and logging technology on active logging sites. For more information on the coming show visit their web site at: www.pacificloggingcongress.com.