^ Selling the Forest is not my main beef… it’s the price at which it was sold that deserves more public and closer scrutiny.
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FWIW… for years … most of large ‘timber/land purchases’ nationwide have been by and between large Pension Plans not Timber companies.
Why… one might ask?
Well… there’s a little thing called a ‘depletion allowance’ which works just like ‘depreciation’ on equipment (basically…tax credits on timber sales ) and they get to deduct ALL the ‘management expenses’, including but not limited to: consultants, cruises, appraisals, aerial inspections, lunches, motels, hunting and fishing trips and, of course, harvesting and replanting, as ‘legitimate business expenses’… most of which is paid to the large Timber Companies who get large chunks of cashflow without tying up any debt or cash…
Truth is … the large Timber Companies send plenty of deals they get first look at — straight to their ‘favorite’ Pension Plan Guys…
Then… if they wish…
they can ‘GIFT’ large sections to folks like The Nature Conservatory and get more TAX CREDITS… PLUS major political capital as DoGooders AND keep 100% of the timber rights… if their timber management plan is approved by the Donee (HA!)…
THAT makes the $numbers$ FB68 and I posted above…jump thru the roof and puts ‘timber’ in the same league as TripleAAA corporate and government 30 year bonds which is perfect (as in stable long term double digits ROIs ) for Pension Plans and the Pension Plan Guys may never step foot in NC much less in the woods…
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If one thinks … the people of North Carolina think they got big ‘political’ problems inside the Beltway… they might want to ride to Rawlee first…
Bottom line is …. we, the people of North Carolina, simply cannot afford what Rawlee wants and does… regardless of who’s in charge. So we’ll just let our kids pay that off…too….
