Safety net: Governor’s Task Force

Herb — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:07:30 +0000

Roseburg News Review
June 30, 2008

Hopes for the renewal of the federal timber safety net were dashed once again when a one-year extension was left out of a bill Congress sent to the president on Thursday.

That doesn’t mean the fight is over, nor should it be.

“Now more than ever, those of us who have been working on this issue need to come together and work to support the Oregon delegation,” Douglas County Commissioner Doug Robertson said. “By no means will we let up.”

In fact, Robertson is encouraged that state officials are beginning to realize the loss of county payments will affect the entire state — not just those with large tracts of federal timber within their borders.

Last week, Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski commented on the newly released report by the Governor’s Task Force on Federal Forest Payments and County Services, saying it’s imperative for the safety net to be extended to avoid financial crisis.

While it’s tempting to chide the governor for stating what timber-dependent counties have been emphasizing all along, instead we’ll take his support and expect him to do all he can to make it happen.

Unfortunately, any extension definitely won’t occur in time for the 2008-09 state budget because the fiscal year begins Wednesday and Congress has just adjourned for its Fourth of July holiday.

That means there will be an immediate impact on the state. For instance, because school funding is determined at the state level, schools across the state will have to absorb the loss of about $32 million, or about $58 per student, in this next school year.

The much bigger loss is the $206 million that would have been funneled to counties. Without the money, 24 counties will see shortfalls worse than what the state experienced in the severe 2001-03 recession, according to the report.

Douglas County is one of the hardest hit, with its general fund facing a 65 percent decline from the previous year. Josephine County will see a 67 percent reduction and Curry County, 60 percent.

That means counties may be asking the state to take on services they had been providing, but are not mandated to, such as law enforcement, veterans services, tax collections, public health, senior services and road repairs.

With a tight budget and a poor economy, the state could have difficulty picking up those costs. The result may be reduced programs that serve fewer Oregonians — again, all across the state, not just in the counties facing financial hardships.

Interestingly, the task force report recommended loosening up the state’s tax system so counties could make up for some of the shortfall through increased property taxes. But even a 30 percent increase in taxes — which would pass the financial crisis to our own residents, particularly those on fixed and low incomes — still wouldn’t fully make up the loss of the timber safety net.

It’s clear that an extension of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act, as it’s formally known, must be in our future.

The federal government shouldn’t be able to lock up the forests, which previously provided timber receipts to pay for county services, without providing alternative funding.

SORA

Safety net: Governor’s Task Force