As if it weren’t bad enough having Governor Kate Brown mandate Covid shots and mask rules, now she is planning to add more taxes. This time it is last year’s HB2674 under the guise of a DEQ “Clean Truck Rules 2021.” Again, she intends to tax diesel engines, fuel, and tires.
Ranches use a lot of diesel. Loggers use a lot of diesel. Trucking operations use a lot of diesel. So guess who this new tax will target?
It’s not like we can jump in our electric combine, tractor, or truck. No affordable ones exist. Peterbilt is estimating another decade or two before it becomes feasible, and that is just for semis. We can’t even use electric cars. We are too far from towns and infrastructure that would support them.
So, this is just another tax on rural Oregon. We just came out of redistricting after the latest census with a horrible map. We have no representation.
https://www.oregon.gov/deq/Regulations/rulemaking/Pages/ctr2021.aspx
We farm 11,000 acres in eastern Oregon. We own less than 1/10th — 1000 acres. Most farm leases are 1/3 for the landowner, 2/3 for the farmer. The farmer pays for spray, equipment, repairs, seed, fertilizer, etc.
Taxation hits farmers harder since we operate specialty equipment with a higher price tag due to its specialized function. For example, if we buy a $600,000 combine with perhaps a 50K engine cost, compare that to a $150,000 truck with perhaps a 50K engine cost. Yet, both are taxed at the same rate. So in one, you’re paying $9000 in extra tax, and in another, paying $2250 extra in tax on a 1.5% increase.
We use 30,000 gallons of diesel each year and pay $.36 a gallon already ($10,800) on that fuel. Red diesel is not taxed at the same level because our vehicles are not used on the road.
For an agricultural operation with a thin margin, this is a lot of money. It might be the difference between continuing operations next year or not. The highest level of harm is done to young farmers who do not have capital built up. This also hurts agricultural operations that have recently spent their capital reserves making it through natural disasters like drought and fire.
Clean electric semi-trucks, tractors, combines, etc., don’t exist. There is no large equipment that is run by electricity. The technology just isn’t there at an affordable rate. Besides, all of our equipment is used.
The Clean Truck Rules 2021 is not about “raising a little bit of money to give to diesel equipment and truck operators to be better able to afford a piece of equipment or truck with a clear engine,” as one committee member informed me last year.
This new rule is a transfer of funds from rural to urban lifestyles. What we would pay in taxes is far greater than (I believe) any urban resident would pay. It would cost us tens of thousands more a year.
We live under the Biglow Wind Project, owned by Portland General Electric. I love alternative energy, and to a pilot, they look like giant propellers on airplanes. It’s like living on an airport. But Kate Brown’s rules will not save the planet. They will only hurt family farms and family-run businesses like ours.
It’s insane to me. Almost all other governors are walking back their liberal trash and she rushes ahead. Almost like she knows her actions won’t have consequences come November.... and I know she’s term limited, but that mail in balloting system....
At least our county, Sherman, passed it and put it in the ballot!!