Oregon Public Broadcasting

State Senator Ted Ferrioli is one of rural Oregon's most outspoken advocates.   A Republican from John Day, Ferrioli was one of the big supporters of the Office of Rural Policy. And he's often been critical of Governor Ted Kulongoski's relations with rural and eastern Oregon.

Now, Ferrioli has resigned from a panel the governor set up to deal with the loss of federal timber payments to rural counties. The federal government stopped sending billions of dollars to rural Oregon this year.

Ferrioli resigned from the governor's Federal Forest and County Services Task force late last week. He says the panel was talking about the wrong issues.

He says he reached the breaking point when other members began discussing new state property taxes or regional gas taxes.

Ted Ferrioli: “Staying on the task force and being a party to 100-(m)million-dollars in taxes is what you call 'rope-a-dope'. Rope-a-dope is basically where you get a whole bunch of people together, you have a foregone conclusion and even though the people on the task force might refuse to sign off on the report, nobody can say you weren't at the table.”

Ferrioli says he left the table because government regulations restrict economic growth in rural parts of Oregon.

The governor is in Europe on state business this week, but his office says he was “sorry” and “disappointed” with Senator Ferrioli's decision.

The task force will continue to meet and discuss the county payments issue.