School/road funding hung up in House

Just weeks after the Mineral County Commissioners passed their final budget a struggling piece of legislation threatens to take even more money from the county.

“It’s going to screw us up if we don’t get it funded here pretty soon because we’re going to have to dig into our principle,” said county commissioner Judy Stang.

The Secure Rural Schools provision was set to receive a funding boost pushed through by Senator Max Baucus through the Senate Finance Committee, of which he is the chair, according to a press release last Tuesday.

The legislation was pushed through along with a tax measure that passed in the Senate but has stalled out in the House.

The provision would extend Secure Rural Schools funding for struggling timber communities for another four years, and significantly increase the money that comes in.

The county has received $764,890 each year since the act originally passed in 2000. Had the new Secure Rural School provision made it through the House, Mineral County would have received almost $5.2 million over the next four years. Payments of $1,508,840.70, $1,357,956.63, $1,222,160.97, and $1,099,944.87 would have been made in 2008 through 2011.

The tax measure that includes the Secure Rural Schools funding did not pass by the required two-thirds vote in the House, but it received enough attention to be set aside for possible revision. However, with Congress convened, it is unlikely that the funding will be approved until the next session in January, if then.

Mineral County has included over $400,000 in its county road fund from Secure Rural Schools since the act passed. Stang said that the county sends two thirds of the money it receives from Secure Rural Schools to the road fund and one third to schools.

According to Stang, the county has cash in its road fund that can be spent to make up for the money lost if the measure is not passed. She warned, however, that interest earned off of that money goes into the county’s general fund and it would affect how the rest of the county is funded.

Stang said that if the measure does not pass, the county will go back to using timber receipts to fund schools and the road department, but with the failing timber market she said they can only expect around $150,000 annually from timber receipts.

She added that if it comes to it, schools have other options to raise money.

“The schools in Montana have not been too active about this but they can do non-permissive levies to get what they need, and that goes on the backs of the tax payers,” Stang said.

The county however does not have that option, and Stang said that in just throwing money at struggling timber communities, law makers have missed their mark. She said that the county should return to receiving money from timber receipts and work should be done to revitalize the timber industry.

“That’s the real solution. This begging Congress to keep us whole all the time is bull,” Stang said.

She added that timber receipts could be a renewable source of funding for small counties like Mineral County.

“The US Government used to have tons of money in their treasury when they used to cut timber. You don’t have to clear-cut everything you just have to manage it and you’d have plenty of money,” Stang said.

Stang said that timber companies should be contributing to the community anyway.

“With all the Forest Service Land in our county, they should be paying us receipts for being here,” Stang said.