Bill Text: OR SJM6 | 2013 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Urging President and Congress of United States of America to allow Oregon counties to manage revested Oregon and California Railroad grant lands located in counties.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 5-3)

Status: (Failed) 2013-07-08 - In committee upon adjournment. [SJM6 Detail]

Download: Oregon-2013-SJM6-Introduced.html

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     77th OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2013 Regular Session

NOTE:  Matter within  { +  braces and plus signs + } in an
amended section is new. Matter within  { -  braces and minus
signs - } is existing law to be omitted. New sections are within
 { +  braces and plus signs + } .

 LC 2841

                     Senate Joint Memorial 6

Sponsored by Senators ROBLAN, FERRIOLI, KRUSE, JOHNSON, GIROD,
  Representatives HANNA, MCLANE, BARNHART (at the request of
  Joint Task Force on County Payments)

                             SUMMARY

The following summary is not prepared by the sponsors of the
measure and is not a part of the body thereof subject to
consideration by the Legislative Assembly. It is an editor's
brief statement of the essential features of the measure as
introduced.

  Urges President and Congress of United States of America to
allow Oregon counties to manage revested Oregon and California
Railroad grant lands located in counties.

                         JOINT MEMORIAL
To the President of the United States and the Senate and the
  House of Representatives of the United States of America, in
  Congress assembled:
  We, your memorialists, the Seventy-seventh Legislative Assembly
of the State of Oregon, in legislative session assembled,
respectfully represent as follows:
  Whereas the unique revested Oregon and California Railroad
grant lands, commonly known as O&C lands, once provided revenues
vital to the economic survival of many county governments in
Oregon; and
  Whereas failures in federal management of the O&C lands have
resulted in a drastic decline in revenues from those lands and
left many of the 18 Oregon counties in which O&C lands are
located without adequate revenues to provide essential public
services, including the protection of public safety; and
  Whereas federal management of the O&C lands has reduced timber
harvests by 90 percent over the last 20 years and deprived
communities and industries of the raw material necessary to
sustain local economies and provide employment opportunities; and
  Whereas federal management of the O&C lands has caused
significant increases in the production of greenhouse gases due
to forest fires; and
  Whereas public and private resources within Oregon counties in
which O&C lands are located are capable of managing those lands
in a responsible and balanced manner for the greatest public
benefit; and
  Whereas the management of O&C lands by public and private
resources within Oregon counties would produce greater benefit to
the counties and to the long-term health of O&C lands than is
realized under current federal management; and
  Whereas three members of the Oregon Congressional Delegation
have proposed a bipartisan plan for an Oregon trust operating
under Oregon laws to manage nearly 60 percent of the O&C lands in
Oregon for sustained-yield timber production to benefit the
Oregon counties in which O&C lands are located and all
Oregonians; and
  Whereas Representatives DeFazio, Schrader and Walden have
offered the O&C Trust, Conservation and Jobs Plan, which would
result in the restoration of sufficient county revenues to avert
the financial crisis currently confronting many Oregon counties
and allow those counties to continue functioning with acceptable
levels of public safety services and other essential services;
and
  Whereas the O&C Trust, Conservation and Jobs Plan would ensure
a sufficiently stable timber supply to justify investments in new
plants and equipment, would provide raw material to support
manufacturing and other jobs and would create up to 12,000 new
jobs in parts of Oregon where extraordinarily high unemployment
rates are a chronic problem; and
  Whereas, in addition to helping revive an ailing economy, the
O&C Trust, Conservation and Jobs Plan would ensure that timber
and other resources are conserved for the benefit of current and
future generations by requiring sustained-yield forestry,
permanently protecting all remaining old-growth timber on more
than one million acres of O&C lands, adding more than 90,000
acres to wilderness protection and giving an additional 150 miles
of streams wild and protected status; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of
  Oregon:
  That we, the members of the Seventy-seventh Legislative
Assembly, urge the President and the Congress of the United
States of America to allow Oregon counties in which revested
Oregon and California Railroad grant lands are located to
exercise full management authority over those lands, by
transferring title to the lands to the counties without cost, by
long-term lease of the lands to the counties for a token amount
or by enacting without delay the O&C Trust, Conservation and Jobs
Plan proposed by Representatives DeFazio, Schrader and Walden;
and be it further
  Resolved, That a copy of this memorial be sent to the President
of the United States and to each member of the Oregon
Congressional Delegation.
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