Timber payments deal dies in Senate
A deal that would have given Oregon timber counties hundreds of millions of federal dollars fell through Thursday, leaving officials here and in Washington scrambling to find another way to pay for everything from libraries to county lockups.
“We thought we were looking good, and suddenly things look terrible for us,” said Dave Toler, a Josephine County commissioner in southern Oregon. “This is a real roller-coaster ride.”
Last week, the U.S. House approved a four-year, $1.6 billion extension of the federal payment program as part of an overall energy bill. Oregon counties heaved a huge sigh of relief.
But Thursday, the Senate stripped out the county payments as part of a compromise to get more Republican votes for the energy bill…
“We had pinned our hopes on the energy bill,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore. “So this is — well, we’re in Hail Mary pass time.”
The money from what is formally called the Secure Rural School and Community Self Determination Act is spread among 700 rural counties in 39 states. But more than half of it goes to Oregon. The payments are critical to the operation of a number of counties whose revenues dried up when logging in public forests was sharply curtailed in the 1990s…
No one was sure Thursday what would happen next. A one-year extension of the payments expires in June. Meanwhile, counties must continue drawing up budgets, negotiating union contracts and taking care of other fiscal business for the coming year.
Gov. Ted Kulongoski has appointed a task force to study the timber payment issue and look for long-term solutions. But the panel has yet to have its first meeting.
“We have to roll up our sleeves and look at what’s next,” said Kulongoski spokeswoman Patty Wentz. She said there are no proposals to bring up the issue when the Legislature meets for a short session in February… [more]