Read the story again.  "Half the money to fire fighting,"  and the rest to the slush funds of watershed wishful thinkers and a slush fund for counties with private timberland,  collected by the State,  and how much would stay with the State and how much would actually go the counties of note?  

Every acre of private timberland pays a tax to fight fire,  and a portion of that money goes to buy an insurance policy to pay for bills over a minimum expenditure---like over $30 Million for that year--.  There are about 10 million acres of private timberland in Oregon,  and governments own another 18 million,  now mostly unmanaged.  Where do you really think the fire danger comes from?