December 17, 2007
By RAELYNN RICARTE
News staff writer

The Oregon Congressional delegation’s hope that compensation for rural counties would be reauthorized this week was dashed when Senate leadership stripped the funding from an energy bill.

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., issued a statement reflecting his frustration on Thursday. He said the last federal checks to offset lost timber receipts due to logging cutbacks in national forests would be mailed Friday.

“Having the Senate leadership gut county payments from the energy bill is but one more in a long list of failures by the leadership of this Congress to get its work done and solve the problems real people are facing every day in our country,” said Walden.

“No budget. No funding for our veterans. No county payments. No fix for the looming tax hike on the middle class. It’s been all politics all years with no real accomplishment. Nothing. Zero, Zip. Zilch. This place is dysfunctional.”

Walden, who makes his home in Hood River, said the House had acted to extend the funding by including $1.863 billion in their version of the Clean Renewable Energy and Conservation Tax Act. He said that bill continued to provide money to rural counties through 2011.

Hood River County received $1.7 million from this funding for road maintenance each year. Another $50,000-$131,000 was used to pay for local search and rescue operations. In addition, the state coffers netted $580,000 as the county’s share of school funding.

Walden said there is only one more week left in the session to get the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act reauthorized. He is hopeful that citizens in Oregon will let government officials hear their displeasure about losing the funding that is intended to make up for lost timber receipts due to environmental regulations.

“If there’s a big enough outcry, perhaps there’s still a chance that we can secure an extension. As I have said in the past, I will continue to do everything I can for Oregon’s forested communities,” said Walden.

U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Gordon Smith, R-Ore., are unsure why Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other leaders removed county payments from the energy bill. That decision was made after a contentious $21.8 billion tax package was cut to gain the support of Republicans and avoid a veto threatened by President George W. Bush.

Both Wyden and Smith plan to advocate that county payments be attached to any appropriate piece of legislation between now and the holiday recess.

“We’ll keep looking for an appropriate vehicle for this, said Tom Towslee, spokesperson from Wyden’s Oregon office.

“Congress should address the needs of rural counties. No option should be taken off the table until we have an extension,” said a written statement released by Smith on Dec. 12.

Federal laws of 1908 and 1937 specified that the government share harvest receipts from national forests with counties. By the mid- to late-1980s, wildlife habitat protection regulations had drastically reduced harvest levels.

In 2000, the Oregon delegation helped obtain federal funding to correct this imbalance. The payments expired last year but were extended through 2007 on a supplementary funding bill.