Now the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus (D-Montana), wants all timber concerns to pay that rate, and he’s attempting to get this proviso added to the farm bill now before Congress.The Op-Ed page in today’s Wall Street Journal wants Baucus, who recently advocated a tax hike on hedge funds and private-equity shops, to extend a similar tax break across the board to all corporations. No surprise here. My question is if a solution already exists – shedding corporation status and restructuring as a REIT – why more timber companies aren’t going that route already?

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BY JOSEPH GUINTO
PUBLISHED MAY 2007

To date, the best hope for the turtle and others were protections granted them under the Endangered Species Act, a 1973 law that promises to safeguard nearly 1,300 birds, amphibians, mammals, fish, and plants.

For all its good intentions, the ESA has been surrounded by controversy for the restrictions that were imposed on landowners whose properties are home to the endangered. “Private property owners … have been victims of the restrictions mandated by the original law,” says Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska).

Still, there is little political will in Washington for rewriting the act itself. Now lawmakers are hoping tax incentives will help make it obsolete. This year, bipartisan groups in the House and Senate have proposed legislation that would give tax credits to landowners if they spend their own money to protect and recover endangered and threatened species that live on or migrate through their property. The bills would also give landowners a tax break if they agree not to sell or develop land where endangered species live.

As of press time, no floor action was scheduled on either the House or Senate bills. But with Congress in a “green” mood, Capitol Hill watchers consider the chances good for action on the tax breaks. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Montana) may be the key. He’s chair of the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees tax-break legislation. “It’s pretty hard to jam something down somebody’s throat,” Baucus says of the ESA. “The more we move toward encouraging people to take actions on their own, the more we’re going to achieve the results we’re looking for.”

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