House strips measure to help rural counties

The U.S. House of Representatives has excluded a Senate-backed measure to extend a multi-year program of payments to rural counties hurt by federal logging cutbacks.

These federal monies are known as PILT, for payments in lieu of taxes. In Park County, programs either partially or wholly funded by PILT amounted to $1,675,373 in 2008, according to the draft preliminary Park County 2009 budget. That figure is reduced to $409,985 requested for 2009.

By Mark A. York, Enterprise Staff Writer and the Associated Press

“We are expecting a PILT cut,” said Park County Commission Chairman Larry Lahren, Thursday. “We’re trying for a 10 percent overall reduction in the budget to (also) cope with these higher fuel costs.”

“PILT is a minimum that is established by number of acres and population by county,” said Barb Marx, budget officer for the Gallatin National Forest in Bozeman.

Park County received $833,942 in 2008 for 950,238 acres of federal land, according to the records of the U.S. Department of Interior’s PILT Web site.

The House removed the provision Wednesday after the White House objected to the legislation. A White House statement said the timber program should be phased out, as the Bush administration had previously proposed.

A bill approved by the Senate includes a four-year, $2.1 billion reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000, commonly known as ‘‘county payments.’’ The bill also provides $1.7 billion for a separate program that compensates states for lost tax revenue from federally owned land.

Both provisions were removed in the House bill.

“Congressman Denny Rehberg is disappointed that the provisions were removed by the House Ways and Means Committee, said Jed Link, spokesman for Rep. Rehberg, R-Mont., Thursday. “He supports the Senate version of the bill, which includes this important funding.”

“Neither chamber gets to dictate the outcome,” Jose Kardon, chief of staff to Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden said. ‘‘There will have to be a negotiation.’’

The timber law provides hundreds of millions of dollars to Montana, Oregon, Idaho and other states, mostly in the West, that once depended on federal timber sales to pay for schools, libraries and other services in rural areas. The law helps pay for schools and services in 700 counties in 39 states. Without the money, teachers and law enforcement officers in rural districts throughout the country could lose their jobs, lawmakers said.

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