Congress tough sell on county payments

Time is running out to renew federal timber payments, and some in Congress are unhappy with the amount of money Oregon receives under the program. Oregon Wild and other conservation groups offer a solution to break the logjam.

A leader in the U.S. Senate said Thursday that federal money to Oregon and other states must be redistributed, suggesting that the state will get less in the future and that counties must make big cuts or raise their own revenue.

Congress is debating whether to renew $500 million in annual payments to Oregon and other states with federal forest land. Most opposition is in the Senate, where some members are trying quietly to secure the state's take while others declare that the current distribution levels can't continue.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said the program is too expensive and "changing the formula for other states to realize a substantial benefit is essential."

In other words, a congressional source said, "the chance of Oregon getting full funding for another seven years is zero."

Bingaman spoke at a hearing chaired by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

Congress enacted the Secure Rural Schools and Communities Self-Determination Act in 2000, sending money to counties nationwide that provide services to federal forest land that the counties can't tax, and on which timber sales shared with the counties have plummeted.

Oregon - more than half of which is in public land - is the top recipient Without any federal money, Oregon counties would have to make huge cuts or raise revenue.

Lane County government, which has gotten $40 million annually under the aid program, recently enacted an income tax to avoid slashing services and cutting 250-plus jobs, but voters may repeal the tax.

President Bush has proposed selling public lands to partially fund the so-called "county payments" program. Bush would phase out the plan within five years. But the program's fate will be determined on Capitol Hill, and U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., said the real debate is in the Senate.

"There are several senators who are insisting on changes in the formula (for distributing the money) so their states receive more funding, and some who are insisting on phasing the program out altogether," DeFazio said.

Ron Wyden, D-Ore., sponsor of the bill to fully renew the program for seven years, defends the distribution, saying it's simply a reflection of Oregon's vast tracts of federal land that the counties can't tax. Wyden vowed Thursday to make his colleagues vote on the program, forcing them into the spotlight on their positions.

Wyden is counting on support from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., but a Reid aide said Thursday only that the senator is trying to "work out something that will benefit the rural parts of the country."

Wyden was dealt a "significant blow" when Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, a Republican who co-sponsored the 2000 law, pulled his support from the renewal effort, said Josh Kardon, Wyden's chief of staff.

Senators in other states constantly grumble about Oregon receiving half the annual federal handout, Craig said, and the program's future "may not be as beneficial to Oregon as the pure old version."

Craig said he's working on a more equal distribution with Bingaman and other Senate leaders including Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

Aides to Baucus didn't return a reporter's phone calls. Feinstein is noncommittal, seeking only to ensure a fair share for California, an aide said Thursday.

Kardon, the Wyden aide, said Craig thinks Idaho "deserves more of Oregon's money." A Craig aide said Craig seeks a formula with "broad appeal" and that probably means Oregon would get less.

Bingaman, Craig and others say the payments were meant to be temporary while counties reinvented themselves to live without the federal timber money, an argument that Wyden rejects. Federal timber sales money in California and the Pacific Northwest has declined as environmental restrictions shut down much logging on federal lands.

At any rate, Oregon counties have adjusted, said Mike McArthur, executive director of the Association of Oregon Counties - but some of them just can't make it without federal help.

Counties have slashed work forces and tried to build reserves while hamstrung by voter-imposed property-tax limitation measures, he said. Lane County and others are trying to raise revenue with taxes and levies, but citizens may reject those efforts.

In the debate on funding the program, Wyden, Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., and others have said it's important to increase timber harvests from federal land.

But Kardon, Wyden's aide, clarified that his boss sees the issue as separate from the county payments debate, adding that it's unlikely that federal timber sales can fully fund the program.

Portland-based Oregon Wild, formerly the Oregon Natural Resources Council, offered an alternative on Thursday: Transfer management of land in Western Oregon from the Bureau of Land Management to the Forest Service for administrative savings of $55 million annually, and tap $300 million from the federal Land and Water Conservation fund.

That would fully fund the state's western counties for six years, while protecting land and freeing money in the county payments program to states that are unhappy with the distribution levels, said Steve Pedery, conservation director.

Lawmakers failed last month to approve a one-year extension of the county payments program, but the option is still available and might not be resolved before the end of April, said Tony Bieda, Lane County's intergovernmental relations manager.

Congress might not resolve the long-term program before the end of June, he added. It remains to be seen whether that would be soon enough for Oregon counties that must make cuts and submit balanced budgets to the state by July 1.

WHO GETS WHAT

The U.S. government gave out $521 million in 2005 to states with counties that have large tracts of federal forest land that the counties can't tax. These seven states got more than 80 percent of it:

Oregon: $280 million

California: $69 million

Washington: $47 million

Idaho: $24 million

Montana: $14 million

Alaska: $10 million

Mississippi: $8 million

This group got less than $1 million each or nothing: Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Guam, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Virgin Islands, Virginia and Wisconsin

  _____ 

WHO GETS WHAT
The U.S. government gave out $521 million in 2005 to states with counties that have large tracts of federal forest land that the counties can't tax. These seven states got more than 80 percent of it:
Oregon: $280 million
California: $69 million
Washington: $47 million
Idaho: $24 million
Montana: $14 million
Alaska: $10 million
Mississippi: $8 million
This group got less than $1 million each or nothing: Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Guam, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Virgin Islands, Virginia and Wisconsin