Bill contains timber money
By MATTHEW DALY
Associated Press
Friday, December 7, 2007 1:59 PM PST
WASHINGTON — Payments to rural counties that once depended on federal timber money to fund schools and libraries would continue for four years under an energy bill that Congress is considering.
A deal Wednesday would set aside more than $1.5 billion to compensate 700 rural counties in 39 states, mostly in the South and West, that were hurt by federal logging cutbacks in the 1990s. The counties lost money when the government restricted logging in national forests to help preserve the spotted owl and other threatened species.
A Senate Democratic aide said the plan would authorize $554 million for the timber program in the budget year that starts in October, with payments decreasing each year until they reach $202 million in 2012.
An additional $350 million would go to rural states through a program that reimburses state and local governments for federally owned property.
"This deal will throw a lifeline to rural counties across the West and pump dollars into schools, roads and emergency services. It took a lot of elbow grease, but we are about to do the right thing for rural counties," said Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Baucus, D-Mont., led a group of Western senators who negotiated the timber deal. He and others have worked for more than two years to secure money for the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act, which helps pay for schools, roads and public safety in 700 rural counties in 39 states. Most of the money goes to six Western states — Oregon, California, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska. Mississippi, Arkansas and other Southern states also receive significant payments. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said the deal would mean hundreds of millions for Oregon schools, public safety, roads and other services. "More importantly, this deal gets these counties off of the fiscal roller-coaster and back to stable funding so that they can focus on the real work of planning for the future," he said.
But Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., said the plan favored Montana and other politically powerful states that were not hit as hard by logging losses as Oregon. DeFazio accused Baucus and other Democrats such as New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, of steering the formula to help their states at Oregon's expense.
"You had people whose counties have not been hurt by changes in forest policy and who aren't economically distressed who want a nice pile of cash. And they got it," DeFazio said.
