A long-awaited vote on Forest Service payments to counties passed the U.S. Congress two weeks ago, freeing up $285 million in support for local schools and projects across 41 states and Puerto Rico.
The reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act includes nearly $18 million in support for 34 Montana counties over the next two years. Had the bill failed, Montana’s share of Forest Service money would have stalled at $126,770; little more than seven-tenths of 1 percent of the two-year SRS payments total.
“The Secure Rural Schools program is a lifeline for Montana’s rural counties — many of which have suffered from severe economic challenges in the wake of declining timber harvests and natural resource production,” Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said in a news release Tuesday. “These payments are welcome news for the dozens of Montana counties that are already stretching their budgets to support local schools, infrastructure maintenance and critical community services.”
Daines, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Montana Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke all voted for reauthorization of SRS payments.
“For Montana’s forested counties, SRS helps communities maintain quality schools, roads and bridges,” Tester said in a news release. “As we work to improve economic opportunities in rural Montana, SRS provides necessary support to county budgets.”
SRS payments evolved as a way of offsetting declining timber harvest receipts in the 1980s. In 2000, Congress passed SRS as a way to provide stabilized payments to states with tracts of National Forest Service land within their boundaries. The payments are similar to Payments in Lieu of Taxes, by which the Department of the Interior offers payments to local governments to help offset losses in property taxes on non-taxable federal lands within their boundaries.
“These are communities that were once thriving and now they’ve come to rely on the SRS program to fund their critical infrastructure programs,” said Heather Swift, communications director for Zinke. “Everything that tax revenues go to support in these communities is now relying on SRS funding.”
In 2012, Congress declined to renew SRS appropriations for the next biennial. Funding for the most recent SRS program ended in October 2014. The U.S. House reauthorized SRS funding last March; however, a vote in the Senate was delayed until April 14. President Obama signed the bill into law that same day.
Payments to individual counties are calculated based upon a complex formula that incorporates the percentage of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management timberland in the county, regional National Forest revenues, and the county’s per capita income.
Of the states scheduled to receive SRS payments, California will be the greatest recipient with nearly $31 million in total allocations. North Dakota will see the lowest payment. With only 740 acres of qualifying Forest Service land, the “Peace Garden State” will see just $507.36 over the next two years.
Four Montana counties will each receive more than $1 million in SRS payments, including Beaverhead ($1.03 million), Flathead ($1.46 million) and Mineral ($1.08 million). Lincoln County will gain the most through SRS passage. The far northwestern corner of Montana will get $4.14 million for schools, roads and forest conservation projects over the next two years. Golden Valley (Ryegate) by comparison, which encompasses a small corner of the Lewis and Clark National Forest, will get $12,197.
The National Forest Service has until May 29 to deliver SRS payments to the counties.
What local Montana counties will get in SRS payments
•Cascade — $132,124.85
•Chouteau — $26,850.28
•Fergus — $78,386.35
•Glacier — $33,934.49
•Judith Basin — $164,546.99
•Lewis and Clark — $624,216.11
•Meagher — $458,863.35
•Pondera — $83,789.16
•Teton — $110,333.29
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