WASHINGTON – A Forest Service program that pumped millions of dollars into rural communities has expired leaving more than 700 counties and 4,000 school districts facing sharply reduced revenue-sharing timber harvest payments.
The Secure Rural Schools program, enacted in 2000, was aimed at shoring up the financial wherewithal of communities and school districts in 41 states where timber harvests were in decline. Historically, those communities had relied on an early 20th century law guaranteeing 25 percent of timber revenues dedicated to local governments. But as federal environmental policies dramatically reduced logging in the 1990s, those local budgets were strained.
The money went to rural schools, roads and emergency response programs in 720 forested counties and also permitted improvements within Forest Service lands. Counties could be reimbursed for search and rescue costs on federal lands and funds could be used to establish wildfire plans.
The law had provided gradually reduced payments since 2012 and was authorized a final time at $285 million in April 2015 and expired six months later. Payments to counties at the previous 25 percent level will start to be sent out in February, said Babete R. Anderson, the national press officer for the Forest Service.
“Without congressional reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools Act, the Forest Service must revert to making payments to states under the 1908 act, commonly called ‘the 25 percent payments,’ for the 2017 payment year,” Anderson said in a prepared statement. “We are working through the steps required to process the 25 percent fund payments expeditiously and anticipate making those payments by the middle of February.”
For Shasta County in Northern California, where 30.5 percent of land is owned by the Forest Service, its 2015 payment of $1.7 million would be reduced to $347,282, according to the estimate by the National Association of Counties, which is seeking to have the program reauthorized at or near previous spending levels.
U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., whose district includes Shasta County, supports the program’s renewal, his spokesman, Parker Williams, said this week. LaMalfa was one of 52 members who signed a letter in September asking Speaker Paul Ryan and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to help reauthorize what they called “a critical safety net for forest counties.”
NACo noted that when the program lapsed temporarily in 2014, forest payments to counties fell by more than 80 percent.
“If Congress fails to renew this longstanding commitment to forest communities, counties across the United States will face dramatic budgetary shortfalls and critical services will be impacted,” said association spokesman Chris Marklund. “NACo continues to work closely with members of the House and Senate, the U.S. Forest Service and county elected officials across the nation in support of this critical safety-net program.”
For Tulare County in California, home of the Sequoia National Park and Sequoia National Forest, the 25 percent payment would amount to $228,172, or a 50.5 percent reduction from 2015’s payment. Half of that money goes to roads and the sheriff’s office and half goes to the county’s schools, said Sophia Almanza, Tulare’s deputy chief administrative officer for finance.
Tulare County, larger than the states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined, is 28.4 percent forest service land.
“These are vital funds that we are losing,” said Almanza, who said she has not been notified by the Forest Service of the possible decline in revenue. “It is something we need to have replenished.”
In California counties as a whole, which received $31.8 million through the program in 2015, reverting to 25 percent of timber receipts would provide $9.7 million, a 69.5 percent reduction.
If the program or something like it isn’t reauthorized, Arizona’s payments under the program would drop from $11.2 million to $1.5 million; Colorado’s would go from $11.8 million to $5.7 million; and Montana’s would fall from $15.9 million to $2.3 million, an 85.3 percent reduction, NACo’s records show. Alaska’s would drop from $9.9 million to $568,935, a 94.2 percent reduction.
For Oregon, the reduction would be particularly severe, cutting the 2015 payment of $86.4 million to $7 million, a 91.9 percent reduction.
NACo is drumming up support for reauthorization and there appears to be some interest among Western legislators. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, was a co-author of the 2000 bill and is working with others to craft a solution.
“The fact that this program was not reauthorized is a travesty that I and others are attempting to rectify,” Wyden said. “I am working in a bipartisan fashion with colleagues like Senators (Mike) Crapo and (James) Risch (both Idaho Republicans) to get this lifeline for rural counties in Oregon and nationwide reinstated.
“As the co-author of this proven program, I know full well how important these payments are throughout the country to more than 700 counties, many of which are still recovering from the economic downturn,” he added.
By: Bartholomew Sullivan | USA TODAY
January 26, 2017