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| 10/2/2008 4:01:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article
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County timber payments stuck in political limbo
Payments attached to $60 billion Energy Package stalls in House
By Kathleen Ellyn
Wallowa County Chieftain
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden is reportedly "pulling out all the stops" in an effort to get county timber payments through Congress before it recesses.
The county payments are attached to the $60 billion Energy Tax Pagckage. 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).
As of press time, the Democratic-led House had refused to go along with either Senate or Administration recommendations and had re-tooled the Energy Tax Package, eliminating the county payments in the process.
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 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.) It was included in the Energy Tax Package that met with Senate approval, 93-2, earlier this week.
The House 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 Sept. 26, the Bush Administration declared its support of the original, Senate-approved, "bipartisan compromise" and threatened to veto any subsequent incarnations.
Wyden and other supporters of the bill remain committed to keeping county payments in it. "He's not taking no for an answer," said Wyden's Chief of Staff Josh Kardon. The senator has been on the phone and on the floor all week, talking to both House and Senate leaders in an effort to make this happen. "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 praised Oregon's Congressional delegation earlier calling them "true champions for rural Oregon."
Passage of the Energy Tax Package before the legislature recesses 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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