As the cost of fighting wildfires increases, state Sen. Elizabeth Steiner has proposed a bill — developed in consultation with the logging industry — that would shift millions in expenses away from the biggest landowners and onto taxpayers.
  • j_roby@slrpnk.netOPEnglish
    12·
    10 months ago

    Records show that timber companies and their trade groups have given Steiner $24,000 since 2020, most recently a $1,000 December donation from Weyerhaeuser, a major forestland owner. Golden’s financial disclosures list only one check from a timber company in his career, and the records show he gave the $500 to a nonprofit focused on restoring forests.

    Steiner told ProPublica that her bill — cosponsored by one other Democrat and two Republicans — had nothing to do with campaign contributions and that Oregon’s history of cutting timber taxes is “only partially relevant to this particular conversation.”

    “You can make an argument that we’re letting them off easy, or that we’re giving them the big tax break,” Steiner said. “And I’m gonna say, I don’t know, you may be right. It’s a bigger conversation.”

    I will never not be angry at how little it takes for a politician to sell out their constituents. $25k over 3 years is apparently all it takes…