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Secure Rural Schools program approved by U.S.
House of Representatives, aimed at providing
funds for rural counties |
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March 29, 2015 |
In Washington, D.C., the U. S. House of
Representatives has passed legislation which
authorizes funding for Secure Rural Schools. The
legislation still needs to be passed by the
Senate to become final.
Secure Rural Schools is a federal program that
was originally intended to share with counties
revenue generated from federally-managed forest
lands within rural counties.
If this legislation is agreed to by the U.S.
Senate, federal funds would be allocated to
Boundary County for the 2015 fiscal year, with
those funds specifically going to Boundary
County schools and roads. Over the years, this
program has provided substantial funding for
Boundary County. Last year the county received
approximately $1.2 million under the Secure
Rural Schools program, with $370,745 of those
dollars going to Boundary County schools, and
the remaining $865,071 going to county roads.
Another federal program, Payment in Lieu of
Taxes, also provides funds to rural counties
based on federally-manged forest lands. The
Payment in Lieu of Taxes program, known as PILT,
is intended to help counties that have large
amounts of untaxable federal lands within their
borders. The concept is, with counties unable to
assess property taxes on these large federal
lands, the burden of paying for government
services provided by those counties is
financially difficult. The PILT program is aimed
at mitigating that financial burden by providing
funds to make up for taxes that cannot be
assessed on those lands.
The PILT program for fiscal year 2015 was
authorized and funded by the U.S. Congress this
past December, opening the way for Boundary
County and other rural counties to receive
funding under that program. Those funds will
likely arrive in Boundary County within the
coming months. Last year the county received
over $362,000 under the PILT program.
In recent years, both of these programs to help
rural counties that contain large amounts of
federal lands have had to await periodic
political wrangling in Congress before being
authorized. This has caused some strain in the
budgets of many rural counties that depend on
those funds to help pay for schools, roads, law
enforcement, and other county services.
With the Secure Rural Schools program having now
been passed in the House of Representatives,
Senate approval is needed for the program to be
authorized and funded for this fiscal year.
According to a recent press release by Idaho
Senator Mike Crapo, legislation that would
provide for renewal of the Secure Rural Schools
program and fully fund the Payment in Lieu of
Taxes program was included as a part of the
Senate budget framework that recently cleared
the U.S. Senate.
Speaking of the Secure Rural Schools program,
Senator Crapo said, “County governments
traditionally relied on a percentage of receipts
from federal timber sales as compensation for
the absence of taxable lands, but funds began
drying up when harvests were down requiring a
temporary solution from Congress. Until we are
able to increase timber harvests to render such
payments unnecessary, we must uphold our
obligation to these communities to assist with
funding roads, schools and other critical
services.”
Once the final legislation on these programs is
passed and reconciled between the House and the
Senate, it would go to the President for final
signature to become law.
Related stories in NewsBF on the Secure Rural
Schools and the Payment in Lieu of Taxes
programs:
-Forest Funds: Often
mentioned in county and school district
budgets--what exactly are they?
-One "Forest Funds"
program has been authorized, county likely to
receive federal payment in June
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