County still waiting on SRS
MINERAL COUNTY – Federal funding that Mineral County relies on for schools and for road maintenance, among other services, still has not been approved by Congress according to Mineral County Commissioners and they are worried about the future.
Secure Rural Schools (SRS) funding is money allocated to counties who used to receive 25 percent of the revenue generated from timber sales. With the loss of the timber industry in areas like Mineral County, SRS money is critical to maintaining roads, funding rural schools and paying for other vital public services. The SRS program expired on Sept. 30, 2014 and has not been renewed by Congress.
According to Mineral County Commissioner Roman Zylawy, in past years Mineral County has received approximately $1.2 million per year consistently. This year, Mineral County received a little over $60,000 and while he said the county has been fiscally responsible enough that services can be maintained at current levels for another year or so, after that the future is uncertain.
“We are still holding out hope that they will pass it,” Zylawy said. “It will be a huge thing if we don’t get it. Since it reverts back to the 25 percent rule, we only got $65,000. Washington D.C. is fighting over a couple of bills right now. The Republicans did have our SRS money tied to the immigration bill but it was vetoed by Pres. Obama. We are hoping that they would pass some of these bills separately so they don’t get shot down.”
Zylawy said if the money doesn’t come through, the county will continue to operate as it has for approximately two years. He said, after that time period passes, they will have to come up with other ways to pay for services the people of Mineral County have come to expect.
“We are pretty conservative here in Mineral County,” Zylawy said. “We have enough saved from our past SRS money that we could probably run the county, status quo, for another two years. Then we would be out of money. For the time being, we are ok. But we need them to pass it and make it retroactive.”
According to Zylawy, if the SRS funding is not approved, the costs to citizens of Mineral County could be substantial.
“If we had to raise taxes on our 4,000 residents to make up the difference, I don’t know if anyone would be able to live here,” Zylawy said. “We would probably have to start making cuts to prepare. We only have a four man road crew so I don’t think we could cut them. They take care of the entire county all winter long. We’d have to look at cutting other places. How many people would we have to cut to make up the difference? It would still just be a drop in the bucket. I don’t know if we could make enough cuts. We will just keep our fingers crossed.”