Rural counties better prepare for end to timber payments
Monday, June 9, 2008 1:21 AM PDT
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Legislation that would continue federal payments to rural counties hurt by federal cutbacks in logging was defeated in the U.S. House on Thursday. It fell victim to a dispute over how to pay the bill’s $1.9 billion price tag. House Democrats insisted on back charging oil companies for royalties they would have paid but did not due to a government error in drilling leases in the late 1990s. Republicans want to get the money for the timber program by expanding offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
The legislation’s sponsor, Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., can be expected to bring the bill up again. Oregon’s timber-dependent rural counties will be in a world of hurt without this federal money. Rural counties will be hard-pressed to juggle their budgets without the federal timber payments.
But these county governments — in Oregon, Washington, California and other parts of the nation — had best prepare for the day when this flow of federal dollars ends. If, as expected, Congress produces an extension of the timber payments this year, it will have to contain language phasing out the program or face a presidential veto. This was originally an emergency assistance program, put in place to help rural counties survive the shock of rapidly declining federal timber sales. It was not intended as a permanent fix for a changing economy.
Even now, the program is on life support. While the House bill calls for a $1.9 billion, four-year extension of timber payments to the counties, a Senate-approved bill provides only a $400 million, one-year extension.
The prospect of these county payments drying up poses a challenge in many states. Rural Washington counties received more than $40 million in payments last year. But no state will be more challenged to find ways to cope without the federal program than Oregon. The state was long a leading timber producer. More than half the land in Oregon is owned by the federal government. As a result, it received $149 million in county payments last year, more than any other state. California was a distant second, with $66 million in payments.
Given that this money helps pay for schools, libraries, roads and public safety in 700 rural counties in 39 states, lawmakers can be expected to struggle to maintain the federal assistance at some level for years to come. But the administration’s position — that the next extension include a notice of how this program will be phased out — is appropriate and, ultimately, in the best interests of the affected counties. They need to begin preparing for what’s virtually certain to come.
oregonconservative wrote on Jun 9, 2008 4:50 AM:
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