Oregon may buy forest land – Timber-sale profits could be used to fund higher education

Oregon would purchase forest land as an investment and use the profits to help make college more affordable under a plan that’s been floated by the governor’s office.

Associated Press

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/local/story.asp?ID=17706

Backers say the proposal, reported in Monday’s edition of the Oregonian newspaper, could help keep up working forests, preventing them from being overlogged or sold for development, especially in Eastern Oregon.

And, decades from now, logging money could help low-income and some middle-income Oregonians pay for a college education in the state.

The governor has said creating a state trust fund that would provide tuition grants is a key priority for his administration, as tuition has risen steadily and as state support for public universities declines.

But pulling some of that funding from timberland investments is still a preliminary idea, which would need to be vetted by the Legislature and, probably, by voters.

"The public would really have to believe in this," MardiLyn Saathoff, higher education adviser and general counsel in the governor’s office, told the Oregonian. "This is clearly a long-term return project."

The logging revenue could be funneled into a trust fund that Kulongoski wants voters to put into in the state Constitution, to protect the money from uses other than higher education.

Earnings would provide annual grants to low-income and some middle-income Oregonians of as much as the average cost of tuition and fees at a state public university. The grants could be used at any community college, public university or private nonprofit college in the state.

Other potential money sources for the tuition fund include donations from private companies and revenue from state taxes on capital gains. Capital gains taxes flow into the state general fund, which pays for K-12 schools and human services, so using the revenues for tuition funding could divert money from those programs.

Advisers said they have several key requirements if they pursue investments in timberland. First, counties would have to be protected, so public purchase of private timberland would not erode their tax rolls. The state might have to reimburse the counties in some form, advisers said.