Voters should be aware that a vote for Dave Upthegrove as Commissioner of Public Lands or Kate Dexter for Clallam County commissioner is a vote for higher taxes.
Both candidates support radical environmental preservation policies which limit timber harvesting of commercial forests.
These policies rob local school districts, fire districts, road departments and local governments of much-needed tax revenues.
When tax revenues to local agencies generated from timber harvest are denied, for the sake of dubious environmental gains, they must be replaced by taxpayers as seen by expensive levy or bond requests from schools and fire districts.
If elected, Upthegrove has promised to remove an additional 80,000 acres of forestland managed by the state Department of Natural Resources from harvest. This land is currently managed for the benefit of local schools and governments as those agencies were the original landowners who turned the land over to DNR in trust for forest management.
Upthegrove’s proposal will remove tens of millions of dollars that benefit school children and fire departments.
Dexter, as Port Angeles mayor, supported cancellation of a recent local timber sale located on DNR-managed trust land outside the city limits that resulted in a loss of more than $300,000 of tax revenue for the Port Angeles School District and other local taxing districts.
For a politician who says she supports schools and affordable housing, Dexter does not understand that her anti-harvest environmentalism leads directly to the loss of school funding and higher taxes that make housing unaffordable.
Rich James
Port Angeles