Counties? push for fed funds detailed
From our weekly issue dated February 03, 2010
Representatives of the law enforcement community were updated on efforts to continue a federal county payments program during the Thursday, Jan. 28 meeting of the Local Public Safety Coordinating Council.
Chairman Dwight Ellis of the Josephine County Board of Commissioners provided the update. The 45-minute meeting was held at Grants Pass City Hall.
Ellis, a member of the Association of O&C Counties Board of Directors, said that the group has hired a lobbyist. That lobbyist will assemble a coalition to support an extension of the Secure Rural Schools Act, Ellis said, which has provided millions of dollars in funding to many Oregon counties, including Josephine.
The Secure Rural Schools program was established to replace timber receipts as a method of funding basic government services after environmental legislation drastically reduced logging on federal land.
Oregon?s congressional delegation typically takes the lead on trying to obtain those funds, but Ellis said that task now will fall to school districts throughout the country.
Also backing the efforts will be the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Ellis said, which boasts around 425,000 members nationwide. The American Federation of Labor likely will lend its support, Ellis added, along with the Nature Conservancy.
The Nature Conservancy is fond of Title II and Title III projects that fund forest thinning and similar programs, Ellis said. Those funds are made possible by the federal allocations.
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) will head all combined efforts, Ellis said, as her state?s rural schools are facing a funding crisis.
?We?re counting on her to take the lead on this thing,? Ellis said.
Lincoln, who serves as chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, is up for re-election this November. She is among a dozen senators being targeted by the League of Conservation Voters for her opposition to climate change legislation.
Ellis said that there are two goals to the lobbying push. The first is to double the current county payments authorization, which will drop to 40 percent for 2012.
The second goal, Ellis said, is to insert a $5 billion authorization into the president?s budget. That allocation would be spread out for 10 years, he added.
?We?re looking for something long-term,? Ellis said. ?What we need is something stable.?
Ellis said that even if the various coalitions could obtain funding at 50 percent of historical levels for a decade, it would provide some reliability at the county level. He added that federal funding comes through every time the county attempts a tax levy.
Obtaining the funding may prove difficult, he cautioned, in light of soaring federal budget deficits.
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