Sen. Golden sets two final town halls next week before 2024 session begins

Published 3:45 pm Friday, January 12, 2024

Senator Jeff Golden addressed a number of topics before opening the town hall to questions. 

Sen. Jeff Golden will host two final town hall sessions before the start of the 2024 legislative session.

Golden, D-Ashland, will be on hand Tuesday in Medford and Wednesday in Ashland to discuss a range of topics, including proposals for adequate funding of wildfire programs to revisions of voter-approved Measure 110.

For the upcoming session, Golden has proposed a ballot measure for the November 2024 election asking voters to approve a type of severance tax similar to one previously paid by the timber industry.

According to Golden’s website, the revenue would go to wildfire programs, which currently have no steady funding source. Money also would go to local governments that used to share proceeds from the severance tax, and toward protection of water supplies that could be damaged by wildfire after-effects or timber management.

Golden plans to bring three bills to his Senate Interim Committee On Natural Resources and Wildfire in the upcoming session. They include a simplified version of Senate Bill 509, which would focus on wildfire prevention and fire readiness; a bill broadening the category of farm- and forestland owners who can qualify for special property tax assessments in regards to standards for conservation and sequestering greenhouse gases; and a third bill that would reduce commercial gillnetting in the main stem of the Columbia River.

According to Golden’s website, the bill pertaining to gillnetting would “resume a longtime conversation with Washington State on a collaboration to buy out existing permits from fishing interests that hold them.”

The town hall sessions will be held from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. The Tuesday session is set for the Medford library, 205 S. Central Ave., in the large meeting room. On Wednesday, the session is set for the Gresham Room of the Ashland Public Library, 410 Siskiyou Blvd.

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