SRS cuts to county will create a need for new policies

Mineral County Road Foreman Jason McLees was on hand at the county commissioners meeting on Friday to inform the commissioners about how the loss of Secure Rural Schools funds would affect his department.

McLees said there is a “few things” the department could do to help minimize the impact on his department’s budget in the wake of the 5.1 percent cuts to Secure Rural School funding

“We could not make gravel in Superior this year and move the chips over,” McLees said. “I’ve been hoarding chips every year – we make the same amount every year and we don’t use all of those chips. Instead of doing sand we can move chips over.”

McLees added that dust abatement is something the department could “forgo” for a year and that he has enough wood chips stored up that would mean the department wouldn’t have to purchase any sand this year.

The county commissioners examined the road department budget during the meeting and McLees showed them areas that could be cut.

“There’s a lot of ‘ifs’ in there (the budget) in case of a catastrophe or something,” McLees said.

Rural counties throughout the nation that typically received funds as part of the Secure Rural Schools program, including Mineral County, were recently informed by the United States Department of Agriculture funds received from the 2012 fiscal year would be retroactively subjected to sequestration.

As a result of the retroactive sequestration, Mineral County is being asked to pay back 5.1% of the $1,300,000 it received in Secure Rural School funding.

“We’re going to have to pay them back,” County Commissioner Roman Zylawy said in a previous commissioners meeting. “But we are also wondering what that means for the future.”

According to a letter sent from representatives of the National Association of Counties to both USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and Acting Director of the office of management and budget Jeffrey Zients “though the Forest Service was aware of the pending automatic spending reductions for many months, and the sequester took effect on March 1, the agency made no mention of an impact on SRS payments until March 20.”

“For the Administration to announce three months after the disbursement of these payments that they are subject to sequester, and that states will receive a bill for repayment of funds already distributed to counties, appears to be an obvious attempt by President Obama’s Administration to make the sequester as painful as possible.”

The letter goes on to “request” that the retroactive sequester be halted stating that it “takes funds that are already being used for rural schools, emergency services, infrastructure, and protecting communities from the risk of catastrophic wildfire.”

A request for a “detailed” report on the legal authority to demand funds that were already paid by the federal government is also contained in the letter.

The Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act was passed by congress in 2000 in an effort to give funds to rural counties that lack taxable private land.

Calculation for the amount of funds received is based on the amount of timber receipts in the previous fiscal year.