Oregon counties face 90 percent cut in timber money

[TexasTowelie]

WASHINGTON – A Forest Service program that pumped millions of dollars into rural communities has expired and with it the advent of sharply reduced revenue sharing timber harvest payments for more than 700 counties and 4,000 school districts.

For Oregon, the reduction would be particularly severe, cutting the 2015 payment of $86.4 million to $7 million, a 91.9 percent reduction, according to an analysis by the National Association of Counties. Polk County would see payments almost completely dry up after a reduction from $782,406 to $318.

For Marion County, the reduction would be from $1.8 million to $186,880, an 89.8 percent reduction. About 25 percent of Marion County, and 26.4 percent of the state of Oregon, is Forest Service land.

The Secure Rural Schools program, enacted in 2000, was aimed at shoring up the financial wherewithal of communities and school districts in 41 states where timber harvests were in decline. Historically, those communities had relied on an early 20th century law guaranteeing 25 percent of timber revenues dedicated to local governments. But as federal environmental policies dramatically reduced logging in the 1990s, those local budgets were strained.

Read more: http://www.kgw.com/money/business/oregon-counties-face-90-percent-cut-in-timber-money/394053479

[LWolf]

1. Every spring.

It's always something. PERS. This. Declining state revenues.

Every spring we face shrinking budgets which cut services and increase class sizes.

And every time it is made clear that we are to find a way to maintain achievement levels, and to grow them, as our staffing, our services and our resources are cut and we are given more students to serve.