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NEWS
Tester, Daines Rally Bipartisan Support for Rural County
Funding Program
Lincoln County and other forested areas have depended on funding from Secure Rural Schools program
BY JUSTIN FRANZ OF THE BEACON
Montana’s two U.S. Senators have joined a bipartisan coalition pushing to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools program, which aids counties where most of the land is owned by the federal government and therefore does not cre- ate any tax revenue.
The program, which in 2014 doled out more than $300 million, expired in late 2015 and the last authorized payments were sent to rural counties earlier this spring. The program is especially critical in places like Lincoln County, where the U.S. Forest Service holds a vast majority of the land.
On April 29, Sens. Jon Tester and Steve Daines wrote a letter with 30 other law- makers to Senate leaders Mitch McCon- nell and Harry Reid encouraging them to reauthorize the SRS program.
“If this program doesn’t get reau- thorized it will impact everything from roadwork to school maintenance,” Tester told the Beacon.
For nearly a century, the federal gov- ernment shared timber revenues with rural counties, but as production declined the Forest Service looked for another way to help wooded communities. The SRS program was enacted in 2000.
The SRS payments are used to maintain
schools, infrastructure and other govern- ment services in 720 counties and 4,200 school districts in 41 states. In recent years, Lincoln County has received upwards of $2.7 million annually and in past interviews county commissioners have said the payments have helped keep the local government’s budget in the black.
“The Secure Rural Schools program remains vital to ensuring that necessary funding is available for our rural schools and communities in Montana’s forested counties, and I will continue to ght to reauthorize it,” Daines said in a press release last week.
Montana’s senators are not alone in
their support and Tester told the Beacon that will be key to getting it reauthorized. He said the SRS program has support of both liberal and conservative members.
“The likelihood of it getting reautho- rized is high because we’ve seen the pos- itive impact of it,” Tester said.
But the current election could throw a wrench in the e ort, Tester said, noting that the Senate will work only 100 days during 2016. He said it is possible the SRS program will be reauthorized via an amendment to another bill or have to wait until the lame duck session after the November election.
jfranz@ atheadbeacon.com
advances. These services have been developed and extended on a global scale because new systems are needed for each country’s unique requirements.
Most recently, NXGEN launched a new program called World Access, the rst program to enable other MSPs, ISOs, and independent sales agents to sell glob- ally in 30 countries.
“I truly believe we just revolutionized sales by with World Access,” Nitopi said. “World Access has done to the ISO world what Square did to micro-merchants, to what Uber did to taxi cabs. They eliminated the friction within that industry. Well, with World Access we have eliminated the fric- tion for someone to sell globally.”
tscott@ atheadbeacon.com
NXGEN Receives Top Industry Award
Local tech company continues to innovate and grow from White sh headquarters
BY TRISTAN SCOTT OF THE BEACON
NXGEN Payment Services, a tech company founded and based in White- sh, recently garnered top honors in its industry when the Electronic Transac- tion Association named it the “ISO of the Year.”
An ISO is an Independent Sales Orga- nization, and NXGEN stands out not only among its much larger competitors, but also as a bright example of technology innovation in the Flathead Valley.
Tom Nitopi, the CEO of NXGEN, said the company has maintained momentum in both scope and innovation since it was founded in 2002.
Nitopi came to Montana in 1992 as a
division manager for another company, and he fell in love with the landscape. By 1999 he was involved in the creation of NXGEN, which was o cially incorpo- rated three years later.
It has since announced an interna- tional expansion into 20 countries while recording double-digit growth year after year since opening its door.
Despite the success, the recent acco- lades took Nitopi by surprise.
“We didn’t think we were going to win but they took a close look at our company and decided we deserved it,” Nitopi said. “We have had double-digit growth since we started, and in the last two years alone we have seen 30 to 40 percent growth in revenue.”
NXGEN has 35 employees at its White- sh headquarters, 75 across the globe and 250 independent contractors. Mean- while, it continues to add o ces around the country. The company has merchants in more countries than any other Mer- chant Service Provider, according to its website.
Among other services it provides, NXGEN works with merchants, from banks to credit unions to stores, provid- ing systems that allow them to accept and process payments through credit cards, debit cards, checks, gift cards and ATMs. NXGEN also provides check veri cation and guarantee; Internet e-commerce processing; ATM services; dynamic cur- rency conversion; and merchant cash
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