If you actually followed these local election campaigns you would find that all the pejorative language comes from the side opposing paying for libraries and other services. The extremist anti-tax rhetoric can actually get pretty vile.ken_sylvania wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 2:41 pmSo why the pejorative language? If the folks from Douglas County would rather have low taxes instead of a library, why should you care? And where do you get the moral authority to say that their decision to have low taxes instead of a library is motivated by greed?Ken wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 2:32 pmEnvironmentalists had little to do with it. Environmentalists and environmental groups have very little power. They did sue the Forest Service to make sure that it actually followed the LAW in managing the public forests (which are the heritage of ALL Americans, not just those who live within nearby counties). But that is it. The Forest Service and the courts decided that they did, indeed, need to actually follow the law when managing our public forests. Imagine that. In this country the government also has to follow the law. In this case laws like the Forest Management Act, Endangered Species Act, and National Environmental Policy Act.RZehr wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 1:04 pm
But why were they getting those federal payments? It was because they were not allowed to log on those lands like before, because of environmentalists. And when a huge part of a county is owned be the government, the county cannot collect property taxes on that land.
https://www.doi.gov/pilt
The biggest reason why mills are closing and logging jobs are vanishing is improvements in productivity. It simply takes 1 logger today to do the same amount of work that required 50 loggers a century ago. And the wood products industry is similarly evolving. The old rural mills that used to make 2x4s and other dimensional lumber that were scattered all over rural Oregon a century ago are mostly obsolete, replaced by much bigger mills in the US and Canada that produce much more sophisticated wood products like plywoods and laminated products.
Timber towns in Oregon are going through the same evolution as farming towns in the great plains, mining towns in West Virginia, or fishing towns in New England. When industries become more productive they require far fewer workers. And towns either adjust or wither on the vine.
But in the case of Douglas and Josephine Counties, it is mostly just the unwillingness of local people to accept that they now actually have to pay for the services that the rest of us have paid for all along. My property taxes would drop in half if I had the same tax rates as they currently have in those counties. They would rather have low taxes than libraries or properly funded police, schools, and highways. It is a choice.
All they are really accomplishing is heightening the death spiral of their own communities as young people and people with children give up and move away. Look up the example of Cave Junction Oregon to see where this leads. They refused to raise taxes to pay for their police and now it is a cesspool of lawlessness.