A prescribed burn in the Wallowa Whitman National Forest in May. (InciWeb)

 

Senate Bill 83 is a harsh goodbye to the state’s wildfire hazard map. It’s a gift of legislative happiness for those who despised the idea of a state map imposing wildfire prevention work on private property.

The bill would end the map. The map’s implications for landowners – real and imagined — were so unpopular the map became counterproductive.

“We need Senate Bill 83 to heal the huge divide among Oregonians, triggered by a wildfire map

that made no logical sense to thousands of affected people,” said Senate Natural Resources

and Wildfire Committee Chair Jeff Golden, D-Ashland. Golden had been one of the map’s architects.

The Oregon Senate passed the bill unanimously. It was an episode of rare, full-throated bipartisanship. In the House, though, the bill has come to a dead stop.

SB 83 was sent to the House Rules Committee. Bills can be sent there when the aim is the pulling of legislative levers by legislative leaders – in this case, Democrats.

Republicans have complained about the bill’s lack of movement in the House just as thoroughly as Senate Democrats praised the bipartisanship of its passage in the Senate.

“This is a stunning reversal and a clear betrayal of the bipartisan effort to repeal these

harmful wildfire maps,” said state Sen. David Brock Smith, R-Port Orford. “Holding rural Oregonians hostage over votes for future wildfire funding is not only obscene, but disgraceful. Put the damn bill on the floor for a vote!”

Two attempts have been made to pull the bill out of committee for a vote on the House floor. Both failed.

There is a problem with repealing the map. Wildfire risk doesn’t go away because the unpopular map goes away. Oregon needs a plan. It needs dedicated money to carry out the plan. House Speaker Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, has made that clear. The bill might be used as a bargaining chip.

If it is, it seems to have the wrong attributes. We don’t see how Democrats could realistically threaten to withhold its passage. Oregonians want this bill to pass. Legislators — Democrat and Republican — do too. That Democrats wouldn’t pass it, when the state wildfire map is so unpopular, seems an empty threat.

And yet, Fahey is right. With only a few weeks to go in the Oregon Legislature’s session, there is no policy package designed to give dedicated funding to reduce wildfire risk and fight active fire.

“I am frustrated that we are not further along, but the session is not over yet,” said Gov. Tina Kotek said on Monday during a news conference. “I continue to have lots of conversations with legislators about the importance of having dedicated funding not only for wildfire suppression but for protecting our communities.”

Wildfire funding options continue to come up in discussions. Kotek on Monday mentioned the kicker.

The kicker is Oregon’s unusual but much-loved-by-some law which returns money to taxpayers when the revenue forecast is off by a fraction of the projected budget. Oregonians voted for it. Every time the kicker is laden with dollars, some legislators longingly eye that revenue.

One proposal is to take all or some of the kicker in a one-time grab and put that toward wildfire prevention and suppression. Sen. Golden has discussed taking it all. Investing the money would provide a regular income source for wildfire.

Kotek has backed taking a portion of the kicker, not all of it. She pointed out Monday that if people earning over $250,000 did not get their kicker, that would be $390 million out of the $1.9 billion. Dedicating that money to wildfire “is a good thing to do,” she said.

The big obstacle in the way is the high legislative hurdle. To take even a portion of the kicker requires a two-thirds vote in each house of the Legislature. That means Democrats would need some Republican help in both chambers. Hence, perhaps, the need for a bargaining chip.

The summer is big with fire danger, as will be next summer and many to come. Oregon is in an undeclared war with wildfire. A schism between Democrats and Republicans over wildfire funding is a victory for the enemy.

The map needs to go. Oregon also needs the money to suppress and prevent wildfire. Any revenue option – kicker connected or not – will be messy and divisive. But atrocities by fire are waiting to unspool with indifferent cruelty.