Message from the President
Mike Berriochoa
November 6, 2009
Dear Fellow Cabin Owners:
It seems like I’ve been communicating with you a lot this week but there has been a lot of important information to share and I want to be sure you are aware of the latest information on several fronts.
Foremost on our minds right now is the moratorium on fee increases now that the Forest Service has completed its billing. As it turns out, the moratorium that was approved by congress is a bit different than we had been led to believe.
The intent of the moratorium was to freeze the 2010 permit fee at 2009 levels. That wouldn’t stop the increase all together but it would keep it from going any higher next year. This didn’t quite happen the way it was intended. As the note below from Pete Bailey states, only the senate version of the bill included the freeze while the bill that made it to the President and signed into law gives the Forest Service the authority to increase fees in 2010 by 25% of the 2009 fee. That’s a bit of a relief but not as much as we were after. There is, however, hope to improve on this in the coming months.
Many cabin owners are now asking what to do in the wake of the bill’s approval. Let me say very clearly that whether you intend to appeal your permit or not, you must pay your bill within 30 days of the date of the invoice. If you intend to appeal the permit fee you have 45 days from the billing invoice to file your appeal with Forest Supervisor Rebecca Heath in the Wenatchee office. Only individual appeals will be accepted. Group appeals will not be allowed.
The Rimrock cabin owners association has engaged the legal services of Tony Menke at Menke Jackson law offices in Yakima who has developed some templates for appeal letters which are available to individual cabin owners. He can be reached at 509-575-0313. I do not know what Tony is charging for this service. I hope you find this information useful. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me. I may not have all the answers but I’ll do my best to track down the information you need.
Regards,
Mike Berriochoa, President
Chinook Pass Cabin Owners Association
-----Original Message-----
From: Pete Bailey
Sent: Fri, Nov 6, 2009 9:18 am
Subject: C2 Update 11.6.09
Greetings C2 State and Regional Coordinators,
Securing the support of Congress for the 2010 Cabin Fee Moratorium was a huge step forward in achieving our overall goal of permit fee reform. Our success was due to the efforts of individuals in every corner of the country. A gracious Thank You to all cabin owners who wrote, called or emailed their Legislators. You made a difference!
Though the moratorium does not fully address the most egregious situations, it does help considerably, but more importantly indicates that Congress recognizes that we have a serious problem that needs to be resolved. The initial Senate version held 2010 fees at the 2009 level, but created a $3.9M offset (reduction) in the Forest Service recreation budget. The House/Senate conference version that was signed into law capped any potential increase at 25%, reducing the offset by about $1M. The hard budget times in DC clearly impacted our situation. The actual moratorium language follows for your interest.
SEC. 433. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, none of the funds made available by this or any other Act may be used by the Secretary of Agriculture to increase a recreation residence user fee for calendar year 2010 by more than 25 percent of the recreation residence user fee applicable to the recreation residence for calendar 2009.
We are not resting with this initial success with Congress, but continue to push forward. Coalition 2 has developed 1) draft legislation language and 2) a summary of the intent of the draft legislation. We have tried to capture the principles and structure of the User Fee / Transfer Fee (UF/TF) idea as proposed. You have informed us that you agree with the UF/TF Proposal, in fact, 92.7% of all those responding to the Sales Data and Appraisal Survey, just completed, support replacing CUFFA with the UF/TF concept. Thanks for this clear affirmation of support. Congress and the Forest Service wanted to know what degree of support existed. Now we can answer their question.
Our Washington Representative, Aubrey King, now is tasked with ‘shopping’ the draft bill in Congress. We are seeking sponsorship for the draft legislation among several likely candidates. They will be approached in the next few weeks. We’ll keep you posted on the results.
Other challenges remain. Once the draft bill is submitted to Congress, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) will be asked to assess the revenue impact of the proposed legislation. We are preparing to defend our assertion that the Proposal is ‘revenue neutral’. This is a key issue if we expect to keep the fee tiers in the affordable range. We also expect negotiations with Congress and the Forest Service to include other issues, e.g., the final percentages and the exact tier assignments with their related fees. Leadership believes that the proposal, as written, fairly addresses these complicated issues. Be assured that leadership will remain fully engaged in this process. The hard work begins now.
Overall support has been great! But, we have not crossed the goal line. Your continued moral and financial support will be required going forward. I ask that you stay informed and engaged as much as your life demands allow.
Pete Bailey, C2 Legislative Contact chair