Page 8 - Flathead Beacon // 12.24.14

8 | DECEMBER 24, 2014 NEWS FLATHEADBEACON.COM Dropped Federal Funds Have Counties on Alert
Just
Sayin’...
“It’s the best job in America. I think it’s better than 50 percent of the FBS schools.”
Bob Stitt, the new head coach of the University of Montana football program.
“What the jury’s saying here is, you have a right to defend yourself, but this isn’t reasonable. Lots of people have guns here, and lots of people feel very strongly that comes with a responsibility to handle your weapon appropriately.”
University of Montana law professor Andrew King- Ries reacting to a Missoula jury’s decision to convict Markus Kaarma of deliberate homicide.
“We cannot have a society in which some dictator some place can start imposing censorship here in the United States. I wish they had spoken to me first.”
President Barack Obama disagreeing with Sony’s decision to cancel “The Interview,” a comedy about North Korea, following a massive cyber attack, which the FBI has blamed on North Korea.
Flathead, Lincoln counties could lose millions if Secure Rural Schools is not reauthorized
By MOLLY PRIDDY of the Beacon
Congress recently passed a $1 trillion spending bill to keep the United States government in operation, but missing from that bill are the funds that many counties in Montana have come to rely on in their annual budgets.
The budget bill dropped $330 million in funding from Secure Rural Schools, a federal program run through the U.S. For- est Service providing funding for counties and schools.
Last year, Flathead County received just over $1.6 million in SRS funding; roughly $1,067,000 went toward the coun- ty’s road department, and the remaining funds went to the schools.
Should the SRS monies not find their way back into the government’s spending bill, it would be a big hit to the county’s bottom line, Flathead County administra- tor Mike Pence said.
“The road budget is a little less than $8 million,” Pence said. “(SRS funding) is one-eighth of our budget, so that’s a lot. But we still have seven-eighths to run with and we’ll just have to reduce our overall cost.”
There are other funding sources the county could tap to cover the cost, he said, such as the money the county set aside to help with Rural Special Improvement Dis- trict (RSID) projects, which sits at over $2 million.
But that money would last about two years covering for SRS funds, Pence said.
“We’ve got a little bit of a cushion, but obviously once that money’s gone, we’re still not going to be getting a million dol- lars a year (from SRS funds),” he said.
The situation is direr in Lincoln Coun- ty, says Commissioner Tony Berget. SRS money accounts for $3 million of the bud- get, he said, and losing that money would be an especially tough blow after the county had to strip $2.1 million from its budget last year after a mathematical er- ror resulted in over-taxation.
Kootenai River. BEACON FILE PHOTO
Berget said SRS and Payment in Lieu of
Taxes (PILT) funds have become integral to the county budget because the Forest Service isn’t logging the timber like it used to. Before SRS started in 2000, counties and schools received 25 percent of the rev- enues generated from timber sales in na- tional forests within the county’s borders.
“One of two things has to happen,” Berget said. “Either they have to start log- ging again so we can get the 25 percent, or we’re just going belly up, we’re going un- der.”
The county received about $3 million for its last SRS payment, Berget said, and that money went to the road department.
Lincoln County is more than 76 per- cent federal lands, he said, and revenue from logging or mining has slowed signifi- cantly. While there have been signs that more logging projects are on the way, Ber- get said the county can’t count on that to make its budget.
“We’re hemorrhaging money and we’ve been making cuts, but we can’t cut to prosperity,” Berget said.
On Dec. 19, Montana U.S. Rep. and Senator-elect Steve Daines joined with a bipartisan group of House members in writing a letter to House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pe- losi, asking them to work together to reau-
thorize the funding.
“Failing to renew the SRS program
will cause significant harm to the ability of rural and timber communities to provide basic services to their residents,” the let- ter states. “We urge you to work quickly, in a bipartisan fashion, to reauthorize, fund and make payments under SRS as early as possible in the next Congress ensuring that local governments across the country can access these essential funds.”
“The lack of active management brought about by burdensome regulation and endless litigation has made SRS nec- essary,” Daines said in a prepared state- ment. “Increasing responsible timber harvests will provide long-term financial certainty for Montana’s forest counties.”
It’s not unusual for counties to have to wait and see if the SRS and PILT funds will get renewed each year, Pence noted, and the programs are usually tacked on to various bills.
If the money isn’t renewed, though, Pence said he expects there would be an outcry and possibly legal action.
“Every year we pretty much go through this same process, then they pull it off sometime down the road,” he said. “If they refuse to fund, I assume there would be some significant action taken.”
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