On March 28, 2007, the U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to restore vital funding for rural schools and beneficial restoration work on our National Forests. This legislation will also benefit hundreds of counties throughout the West through full funding of the Payments In Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program. Western communities have been short-changed for too long by chronic under-funding of PILT.
Democratic Senators from six western states proposed the multi-year plan to provide secure funding for rural schools and counties. This important proposal will provide reliable funding to thousands of schools and support other vital county programs.
The plan will prevent a catastrophic cut-off of funding that has threatened many communities -- especially in the Pacific Northwest -- due to the failure of the 109th Congress to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act. Over 775 rural counties and 4,400 schools in 42 states could be forced to cut back their services to rural communities and families, and millions of dollars for beneficial restoration projects in National Forests could be lost if Congress doesn’t reauthorize the Act. This law provides consistent funding for county governments and schools located near National Forests and supports beneficial restoration work on our public lands.
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) had introduced a county payments reauthorization bill (S. 380) with several co-sponsors, but this new proposal effectively replaces this legislation, as most of the S. 380 co-sponsors were part of the announcement on March 20 of this new proposal. (Those co-sponsors were Senators Ted Stevens (R-AK), Patty Murray (D-WA), Gordon Smith (R-OR), Diane Feinstein (D-CA), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), and Jon Tester (D-MT).)
>> Read Wilderness Society's reaction to the Senate vote (March 28)
>> Read Senators’ press release on the new proposal
>> Read Wilderness Society’s reaction to the new proposal (March 22)
>> Please ask your Representative to continue this vital funding for rural counties, schools and restoration work in our National Forests, with no land sales or other environmentally destructive strings attached.
>> Read testimony on S. 380 submitted by The Wilderness Society. [pdf]
About Payments to Counties
Historically, rural counties and schools received 25% of revenues generated by timber sales and other commodity production from the National Forests. This revenue-sharing system created an environmentally harmful incentive for county and school officials to advocate increased logging in National Forests. When National Forest logging revenues declined in the 1990s, many counties and schools faced a budgetary crisis.
Fortunately, Congress changed the funding system for counties and schools in 2000 with passage of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act. The law replaced revenue-sharing with a guaranteed level of payments that was no longer tied to the amount of timber produced from the National Forests.
In addition, the Secure Rural Schools Act has provided millions of dollars each year for stewardship-oriented projects on National Forest lands. Funds have been put to good use improving fish and wildlife habitat, controlling noxious weeds, and maintaining roads and trails.
However, the Secure Rural Schools Act required Congressional reauthorization in order to continue the guaranteed payments and restoration projects. In 2006, President Bush proposed to phase out the Secure Rural Schools program and to pay for the program by selling 300,000 acres of National Forest land. The President's proposal to sell-off National Forest lands met with overwhelming, bi-partisan opposition. Amid the controversy, Congress failed to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools legislation and the program expired in September 2006.
