Rural Oregon Might Survive After All

Senate Votes To Show West The Money

By Joseph Friedrichs, 3-29-07

U.S. senators overwhelmingly voted yesterday to extend the county timber payments program, in an amendment to a bill funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported.

It passed 75-22, with both Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., voting yes. The $400 million-annual program, which expired last year, was intended to offset declining timber revenues in rural counties. Deschutes County received about $3 million under the program last year, while Crook County received $2.5 million and Jefferson County was given about $800,000, including school funding.

The amendment, introduced by Wyden, would extend the program for five years and reduce payments 10 percent each year. It would expand the program to $425 million annually, through higher payments to Idaho, New Mexico and other states that historically received a far smaller share of the funds than Oregon.

The move may not yield immediate results for Oregon counties, however. President George Bush has repeatedly promised to veto any bill that sets a timeline to withdraw troops from Iraq, as do both the House and Senate versions of the funding package.

The Senate plan would authorize about $2.8 billion to extend the so-called county payments law through 2011. Another $1.9 billion would be directed to rural states through a proposal to fully fund the Payments in Lieu of Taxes program, which reimburses state and local governments for federally owned property.

The measure would allocate $526 million in emergency spending this year to 700 counties in 39 states hurt by logging cutbacks imposed in the 1990s to protect the spotted owl and other threatened species.

Most of the money goes to six Western states - Oregon, California, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska - although Mississippi, Arkansas and other Southern states also receive significant payments.

The timber law expired last year. Efforts to reauthorize it have been frustrated by budget constraints and concerns that Oregon gets too much money under the current formula. The Senate plan would fully fund counties in Oregon and other Pacific states this year, and then gradually decrease Oregon’s share, down to a total of 28 percent of the overall program in 2011.

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