Editorial: A plan to save forests

Monday, April 3, 2006 | 8 a.m.

When Bush administration officials announced plans to sell off 300,000 acres of national forest lands to fund rural schools, they challenged opponents of the plan to come up with something better.

Two Democratic senators did. On Thursday - one day after the U.S. Forest Service extended the comment period on the proposed land sales by 30 days - Montana's Sen. Max Baucus and Oregon's Sen. Ron Wyden introduced a bill that would raise $2.6 billion for rural schools by closing a tax loophole that has allowed some government contractors to avoid paying federal taxes.

Under current law the federal government does not withhold taxes from contractors that provide goods and services to the government. The measure proposed by Baucus and Wyden calls for withholding 3 percent up front of the money the government pays for contractor work. That amount would be applied to the contractors' total tax bill - and reimbursed if the company's obligation amounts to less than 3 percent. But most contractors owe far more than that, Baucus said.

This seems more fiscally sound and raises far more than the $800 million that the Bush administration hopes to collect by permanently selling off public forest lands - 2,100 acres of which lies in portions of Nevada's Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. Baucus simply seeks to collect money the federal government already is owed.

The Bush plan to sell off the public's forest vistas is the latest in a string of plans the administration is proposing in order to offset a record budget deficit. Also in the works is a vague scheme to collect $350 million from sales of Bureau of Land Management acreage to help alleviate the national debt, and a proposal to allow corporations to rent logo space at Forest Service facilities. Baucus and Wyden have set the stage for the Bush administration to reveal its true intentions. If money for rural schools is all they're after, then the Democrats' plan gives them the option for which they asked.

If not, then it's just another example of Bush trying to bluff the American people.