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| 9/26/2008 2:41:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article
Comment on this article | White House Backs Senate Legislation which includes county payments
The Democratic-led House has refused to go along with either Senate or Administration recommendations and has re-tooled the $60 billion Energy Tax Package today (Sept. 26). The Senate- and administration-approved package (H.R. 6049) had included $3.8 billion for a multi-year reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 (timber money) and full funding for the Payments in Lieu of Taxes Program (PILT).
The Energy Tax Package is designed to be an investment in renewable energy, funded in part by higher taxes on oil and gas companies.
The Secure Rural Schools measure that was part of H.R. 6049 was co-sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), and the Chairmen of both the Senate Finance and Energy and Natural Resource Committees, Max Baucus (D-MT) and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM.) H.R. 6049 met with Senate approval, 93-2, earlier this week.
The House has since stripped the county payments from the Energy Tax Package as they have stripped it from other bills in the past - usually with Administration approval. This time, however, the Administration is insisting the bill be reconstituted in its original form and passed.
In a statement released today (Sept. 26), the Bush Administration declared its support of the original, Senate-approved, "bipartisan compromise" and threatened to veto subsequent incarnations.
Wyden has reportedly been on the phone and on the floor all week, talking to both House and Senate leaders in an effort to get H.R. 6049 passed. "For the first time in the entire Bush administration, we now have two out of the three voices in the legislative process in agreement on county payments for Oregon counties," he said. "That means we are now closer to solving this crisis than we have been at any time in the last three years."
Oregon Gov. Kulongoski cheered Oregon's congressional delegation on earlier this week, calling them "true champions for rural Oregon."
Passage of the Energy Tax Package before the legislature recesses tomorrow (Sept. 27) is now in doubt.
The Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act of 2000, originally authored by Wyden and U.S. Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) in 1999, established a six-year payment formula for counties that receive revenue-sharing payments from the United States Forest Service (USFS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands. Based on historical timber receipts, the formula established a stable source of revenue to be used for education, roads and various other county services in rural areas. Over 700 counties in 39 states have received funding under the original county payments law, which was allowed to expire in September 2006.
The PILT program compensates states for loss of tax revenue from Federal lands. Full funding of PILT would also provide increased funding for counties in Oregon and around the country that lose tax revenues due to the presence of Federal lands in the state.
Last year, by a vote of 74 to 23, the Senate approved a Wyden-Reid-Bingaman-Baucus multi-year extension of the county payments law as part of the FY 2007 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill. However, after opposition from the President, the House agreed to an extension for one year only.
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