Georgia Forestry Association

On January 24, representatives from the Georgia Forestry Association addressed a meeting of the Georgia Sheriffs Association (GSA) seeking better outcomes when working timber theft cases in Georgia.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources has released its final draft General Permit for Storm Water Discharges from Industrial Activities, including timber products, wood treating and saw mills (Section 8.A, pages 38-40). Additional information is available at http://www.gaepd.org/Documents/IndustrialStormwater.html .

The public notice comment period expires on March 16th. Although the industry has been represented on a task force that has been consulted during the drafting of the General Permit, please review the draft, and provide any comments before the March 16 deadline.

Gov. Nathan Deal has put forth a list of agenda items to distinguish Georgia state as the best place in the nation to do business.

“In these challenging economic times in which jobs are portable, we must do more to compete,” Deal said. “It is my goal to make Georgia the No. 1 state in which to do business. The Georgia Competitiveness Initiative Task Force developed a set of tax structure proposals that we believe will give Georgia an edge over other states. We believe this will result in more Georgia companies expanding their footprint here.”

Through the real estate bubble of the last decade, most ad valorem tax assessments on real property increased. These increases were frequently significant and often resulted in higher tax bills for property owners and increased tax revenues for most counties. However, that real estate bubble has burst, and property values are declining. In many cases, county assessors are reluctant to acknowledge this decline in value. Also, recent changes to the law have strengthened Georgia citizens’ ability to contest and appeal their real property assessments.

The Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) held its first meeting on November 29th in Chicago, IL, to launch the softwood lumber check-off, a unified industry funded promotion program created by super-majority support in an industry referendum last June.