Senator Wyden visits Sisters

Senator Ron Wyden got a perspective on the economic health of the Sisters Country in a meeting with a group of community leaders on Friday.

The Senator met over lunch at Bronco Billy's Ranch Grill and Saloon with civic leaders in government, the arts, recreation and business. The meeting started with a thank-you from Mayor Lon Kellstrom to the Senator for his efforts in securing a $1.5 million earmark for a major transportation project - the improvement of Cascade Avenue through downtown Sisters. (See related story, page 29.)

The earmark in the Surface Transportation Bill reauthorization has not made it through the House of Representatives, but it is expected to survive the legislative process intact.

Wyden said he is committed to appropriate federal action to help the private sector thrive. He believes such projects are an appropriate road toward that

goal.

"One way or another, I want to grow the private economy," he said. "Clearly there are areas where there is a role for government, and transportation is one of them. You can't have big-league quality of life with little-league transportation systems."

Wyden praised Sisters for the community's efforts to balance the quest for prosperity with respect for the values that make Sisters attractive.

"You figured out long ago that the intersection of economic development and quality of life is the place to be," he said.

The senator noted an area of passion for him that bears directly on both prosperity and quality of life in the Sisters Country: the health of local forests.

Coming on the heels of yet another significant wildfire that threatened homes and economic activity, Wyden's message had particular resonance.

The senator has sponsored legislation called the Eastside Forest Restoration Bill (S.2895). According to Wyden's Web site (www.wyden.senate.gov), Wyden's legislation would require the Forest Service to identify areas of the forests that most urgently need restoration and would produce timber to support local mills, local jobs and rural infrastructure. The landscape scale projects of no less than 25,000 acres in each national forest each year would be developed over three years in collaboration with groups that include industry and conservation representatives and with an eastside scientific panel created by the

legislation.

"It'll be good for quality of life; it'll make the forest healthier," he said.

Wyden believes the legislation is critical to keeping the nine mills in the region in business. Without those mills, an incipient biomass industry would die in its infancy, with no infrastructure to sustain it.

Additionally, the work in the forest would employ people and reduce the fuel load that feeds aggressive fires like this month's Rooster Rock Fire.

"The fires we're seeing today are not 'natural'," Wyden asserted. He sees them as "infernos caused by years of neglect."

The proposed legislation has won support from an array of timber industry advocates and conservation groups.

"I have never put out more effort and more political capital than I have for the East Side Forest Restoration Bill," the senator said.

City Councilor Jerry Bogart inquired about Wyden's efforts to pass tax reform legislation, the Bipartisan Tax Fairness and Simplification Act of 2010, sponsored by Wyden and New Hampshire Republican Judd Gregg.

The legislation is supposed to cut through a maze of exemptions, deductions and credits to create a simpler system and hold down rates for businesses.

"I'm pushing it very hard," Wyden said. "It's the first bipartisan tax reform bill in over two decades."

Sisters Certified Public Accountant Peggy Tehan pressed the senator on the proposed legislation's impacts. She expressed concern that the legislation would shift an increasing burden of taxation onto a smaller group of wealthier individuals while others would pay no tax.

Wyden disputed that characterization, saying that the only people who will see an increase in taxes are those who make "a substantial portion of their income" through capital gains.

Wyden noted that the conservative Heritage Foundation analyzed the bill and found it worth careful consideration. (See the Heritage Foundation analysis at http://www.heritage

foundation.org.)

Wyden and congressional staffer David Blair praised Sisters' efforts to expand bicycle recreation and transportation, including the completion of the Peterson Ridge Trail.

Schools superintendent Jim Golden asked Wyden to assist in revising federal education benchmarks to "move to a model that measures individual growth."

The Senator also reiterated his commitment to helping the Sisters Rodeo Association acquire eight acres of National Forest land to accommodate facilities expansion.

Senator Wyden concluded his visit with a stroll through the downtown core to visit with local merchants.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

• Email: editor@nuggetnews.com
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