Federal financial rescue approved for O&C counties
Funding added to ‘bailout’ for Wall Street investors; Josephine County officials ‘relieved’
From our weekly issue dated October 08, 2008
Josephine County Commission Chairman Dave Toler and other officials throughout S.W. Oregon felt relieved Friday, Oct. 3 after President Bush signed a financial rescue plan extending federal timber payments to counties for another four years.
Toler called the forthcoming monies “a bridge to the future.”
Oregon is to receive the biggest share of payments -- approximately $254 million in the current budget year. Following are California ($63 million) Washington ($43 million), Idaho ($43 million) and Montana ($32 million).
The federal funding will continue to put Josephine and other counties in a solid financial position. Josephine and other counties in S.W. Oregon were facing the likelihood of drastic reductions in law enforcement, road maintenance, and other services.
Senators inserted the timber portion under the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act. It provides monies to rural counties that had been receiving O&C funds, but which were reduced by restrictions on federal logging harvests. The House approved the bill Oct. 3, two days after Senate passage.
Said Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), “For rural Oregonians, we finally succeeded in reauthorizing and funding
our county timber payments program for the next four years, and we fully fund Payment in Lieu of Taxes through 2012.
“This is an enormous victory for our Oregon schools, counties, libraries, road departments and law
enforcement agencies. Counties and schools can now restore essential services and real, family wage jobs.
“For taxpayers,” said Walden, “this measure prevents 21 million Americans in the middle class and 237,000 additional Oregon households from having to pay the onerous Alternative Minimum Tax, which would otherwise cost families $62
billion in higher taxes this year alone.
“It extends tax relief for
qualified college tuition and for teachers who personally pay for classroom needs. It extends the child tax credit, which is essential to growing families. Failure to stop these tax increases on the middle
class would make their family economic situation even worse than it already is.
“For Oregon’s renewable energy sector,” Walden continued, “this measure extends tax incentives that are creating green collar jobs right here in Oregon through the development of wind, solar and fuel cells while providing
research incentives for clean coal, plug-in hybrid vehicles and other conservation initiatives that will help make America more energy independent.”
The so-called county payments law provides hundreds of millions of dollars to Oregon, Idaho and other states. Those states have counted on federal timber sales to pay for schools, libraries and other services in rural areas.
Nationwide, payments go to 700 counties in 39 states.
Following the president signing the bill, Dave Toler, chairman of the Josephine County Board of Commissioners said that the funding will provide a “bridge to the future.” He added though that citizens need to understand that the amount counties will receive will not be as much as during previous years.
Additionally, he noted, the payment will decrease each year.
Said Toler, “Calling it a four-year subsidy is really kind of inaccurate. This is a serious ramp-down. It goes from 90 percent in the first year to 40 percent in the last year, to zero.”
The chairman stated that Josephine County residents should not view the short-term subsidies as a permanent funding solution to the county’s public safety financial problems.
“This is a four-year phase-out,” Toler stressed, “and emphasis (should be) on the over and out.”
Josephine County was anticipating the loss of nearly all of its public safety funding unless voters OK a law enforcement district levy on the Nov. 4 ballot. If passed, Toler said, the levy could be used in combination with the just-approved “rescue money” to assist residents get back something they’ve lacked for a long time.
He noted, “We could use it to fund a full-fledged sheriff’s office. We could have no levy taxes for year one, and phase in the full tax over the next four years.”
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who co-sponsored the original timber payments law in 2000 and had a major role in its renewal, hailed extension of the funding for counties. He was against the bailout bill, but urged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to include the timber provision. It also was backed by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and numerous other Western lawmakers.
Gov. Kulongoski said that the “action by Congress on the $7.7 billion economic rescue bill (including the money for counties) is welcomed news for Oregon, particularly at a time when families across Oregon are worried about the increasing costs in living and concerned if their retirement investments will be there when they need them.
“The bill Congress passed includes a critical extension of the county
payments program, providing the financial bridge we need to prepare for the eventual loss of the program.
“It is essential that we use the time we have been given through this temporary extension to roll up our sleeves and work together to find common and lasting solutions.
“The task force I created is still developing final recommendations for how federal, state and local governments can work together to implement a plan that allows our counties to continue to provide critical services
in their communities,” the governor said.
He praised “those who supported this retooled rescue plan that is a life line for businesses and communities of all sizes. I believe it is what
our country needs and what Oregon needs during this uncertain time.”
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