Lawmakers closer to securing county payments funding

By Larry Meyer - Argus Observer
Friday, June 22, 2007 10:52 AM PDT

ONTARIO - In a continued effort to help provide lasting relief to rural school and communities in natural resource-dependent states, U.S. senators Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith and other western states senators won another round in their fight to get extended funding for the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act — also known as county payments — through 2011.

This latest effort came in an amendment, approved in the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, to the Energy Advancement Act of 2007. Joining with Wyden and Smith, were Max Baucus, D-Mont., Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., Ken Salazar, D-Colo., and Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V.,

The county payments replace loss of revenue by counties that received a share of the money the federal government claimed from timber sales in federal forests. That revenue declined as logging has become more limited.

In announcing the effort, in a joint release, Wyden said, “As I have said time and again we will use every legislative opportunity at our disposal to get a multi-year renewal of the county payments program signed into law. It is far past time that we get our rural communities off the budgetary roller coaster and on the road to a long-term and stable funding fix for schools, roads and public safety.”

“We’ve got to put our counties on a path to stability,” Smith said, echoing Wyden’s remarks. “Until we have a permanent solution, these payments will be needed as the lifeblood of the county budget.”

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In May, Congress approved a one-year emergency extension of county payments funding, but it was not enough to save jobs and services in some counties, which closed libraries and cut back on public safety, laying off people in their sheriff’s offices.

Of interest to Malheur County, the amendment also includes the senators’ proposal for full-funding of Payments In Lieu of Taxes. PILT funding compensates counties for loss of tax revenue on federal lands within their boundaries.

Providing full-funding for PILT would boost revenues for Malheur County, which saw a reduction in its PILT payment for 2007. Malheur County Judge Dan Joyce said the county saw a reduction of $6,300 in its payment this year, but still received about $1.4 million.

However, that funding could be cut even more by next year if the county payments are not extended, since there would be more counties seeking to be included in the PILT payments.