PORT ANGELES — The state Department of Natural Resources should find an equitable solution to arrearage and provide junior taxing districts with annual revenue forecasts, Clallam County commissioner Randy Johnson said.
Johnson on Monday said he and other local officials planned to testify at the state Board of Natural Resources meeting in Olympia today.
“The point I’m making is there are two things,” Johnson said at a commissioners’ work session.
“No. 1, the arrearage is important to us from a financial standpoint.”
Arrearage is the volume of timber that DNR promised to sell but failed to sell in the 2005-2014 planing decade.
“And then, No. 2, right behind it, I’m suggesting … that we need a budget,” Johnson said.
“We, the county, and all the junior taxing districts need a budget that actually forecasts what their income is going to be for the year 2018. Period.”
The Board of Natural Resources sets policies that guide DNR land and resource management.
Its six members, which include Clallam County Commissioner Bill Peach, will discuss a financial analysis of proposed alternatives for the long-term conservation of the marbled murrelet and the next 10-year sustainable harvest calculation today.
Meeting in Olympia
The meeting will begin at 9 a.m. in Room 172 of the Natural Resources Building, 1111 Washington St. S.E., Olympia.
Timber counties and junior taxing districts such as schools, hospitals and fire departments receive a share of the revenue from timber harvests on DNR-managed trust lands. DNR manages 93,331 acres of forest in Clallam County alone.
By isolating counties such as Clallam that were under-cut in the past decade, the total arrearage was 702 million board feet.
By including counties along the Interstate 5 corridor that were over-harvested, the net arrearage in Western Washington was 462 million board feet, DNR officials have said.
DNR is developing a conservation strategy for the marbled murrelet, an environmentally-protected seabird that nests in coastal forests, while drafting a sustainable harvest calculation for 2015-2024.
The board soon will decide how to incorporate 2005-2014 arrearage into the next 10-year cycle.
Agency officials received more than 6,500 public comments on draft environmental impact statements on the murrelet strategy and sustainable harvest calculation this spring.
Final environmental impact statements will be published next March, and the board will adopt final plans in November 2018, DNR Deputy Supervisor of State Uplands Angus Brodie has said.
Johnson said he planned to cite statistics from a recent forum on homelessness in Clallam County to describe social impacts of arrearage and DNR forest management.
Poverty rates are as high as 20 percent in Port Angeles and 23 percent in Forks, Johnson said, and Clallam County’s average annual wage is $36,000 compared to a statewide average of about $55,000.
A 2016 report from the Employment Security Office, the average annual wage in 2015 was $36,612 while the state’s average annual wage was $56,650.
“Our county is not the most well endowed financial county that one might look at,” Johnson said.
Moreover, DNR should meet “basic best business practices” and provide revenue forecasts to junior taxing districts that rely on timber revenue.
“I can’t believe an agency can’t give you a forecast or a budget for the next year,” Johnson said. “I’m sorry, it just doesn’t make any sense.”
Stan Creasey, chief accountant in the Clallam County Auditor’s Office, said he, too, planned to testify about the need for better financial projections from DNR.
Speakers are limited to three minutes.
Peach, a retired Rayonier executive, represents 21 timber counties as vice chair of the Board of Natural Resources.
The third Clallam County commissioner, Chairman Mark Ozias, said he was comfortable with an outline that Johnson had prepared for the DNR meeting.
“The accounting and budgeting issues are of particular importance, I think,” Ozias said.
“To me, that seems like the element of all this that we have the potential to actually have some positive influence on, or at least the most potential to really influence. So I’m glad to see that focus there.”
Ozias said there was a “little more difference of opinion” about how to handle arrearage.
“I like the message that we deserve to be treated equitably, and that it’s our recommendation that we collectively find a way to address the arrearage issue expeditiously,” Ozias told Johnson.
“In general, I’m happy with both of those messages, and I appreciate, again, your willingness to go down and help elevate our voice and make it heard.”
Board of Natural Resources meetings are broadcast and archived on TVW, the state’s public affairs network.
To view past meetings, go to www.tvw.org, click on “Archives” and use the search function.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsula dailynews.com.
