Legislation which provides funding to rural municipalities and
school districts from timber receipts on the Allegheny National
Forest is in peril – but not completely dead.
While the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination
Act remains unauthorized for another year – Congress left without
passing the legislation before it expired on Monday – local
lawmakers hope to join forces with their western colleagues to
introduce legislation that would likely reauthorize the act for
another year. However, what form the legislation will take is still
not clear.
“As it stands today, Secure Rural Schools won’t be funded for
the coming year,” U.S. Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa.’s, Communications
Director Patrick Creighton said Wednesday. “We thought there was a
chance it would pass with the Senate’s war supplemental, but that
didn’t happen.”
That leaves municipalities and school districts in the forest’s
four counties – McKean, Elk, Forest and Warren – in limbo,
wondering how to fill the funding void in their budgets.
“We are hoping when Congress comes back into session next week
that we can get some movement on this,” Creighton said. “Folks in
McKean, Forest, Elk and Warren counties will be hit hard by
this.”
The program provides much-needed extra funding for
infrastructure improvements, code enforcement and to finance
additional projects. As it stands, the counties – which filter the
money down to the municipalities and school districts – receive
guaranteed payments from the federal government instead of sharing
a pot with other communities located within the forest.
Earlier this month, the House passed a bill authorizing an
additional ,165 billion towards the war on terror, but, in the
passing of the emergency spending bill, the House took out a
provision that would have provided the funding for Secure Rural
Schools, leaving the matter in the hands of the Senate. However,
the matter died in that chamber as well, leaving the fate of the
program unknown.
Last year, the program – which was originally authorized for six
years and was designed to offset a sharp drop in timber receipts
that occurred during the 1990s – was reauthorized for one year at a
price tag of ,425 million. Locally, the Bradford Area School
District receives roughly ,350,000 a year from the program,
according to Business Manager Kathy Kelly.
“The congressman remains committed to working with the western
state legislators to get this done,” Creighton said, adding
President Bush has committed to signing off on a one-year extension
to the program. “We are hoping to get something done in the near
future. While the outlook is bleak, we’ll keep chugging along.”
The matter essentially boils down to the western states – which
have significant amounts of national forestland – overpowering
those in the eastern half of the country when it comes to crafting
legislation.
According to Allegheny Forest Alliance Executive Director Jack
Hedlund, not enough people are affected by the situation on the
Allegheny National Forest.
The AFA represents several school districts and townships across
the region.
“The western states are highly impacted because they have a lot
of public forest acreage,” Hedlund said. “But in the East,
essentially only four counties are affected and it’s hard to get
the congressmen in Pennsylvania, with the exception of Congressman
Peterson and Phil English, excited about this legislation when it
doesn’t affect their constituency to speak of. That’s really the
scenario east of the Mississippi.”
Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon, has been pushing for the renewal
of the program for five years. So far, that effort has failed.
One piece of legislation backed by DeFazio included maintaining
funding for the Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT), which compensate
states for lost tax revenue from federal lands. PILT is especially
important for those states with a significant amount of forest
land.
“There are big differences between the West and East and the
legislation is mostly now being crafted by the western Democrats.
Their circumstances just don’t match ours, and that’s one reason
the legislation hasn’t made it through Congress.”
Meanwhile, Hedlund said the western Democrats were willing to
increase taxes on oil and gas to get additional funding, but the
Republicans weren’t willing to do that.
“You have all these different dynamics playing out,” Hedlund
said. “I don’t see anything more than a continuation of the program
happening this year. A multi-year program probably isn’t in the
cards.”
The upcoming election poses another concern – just who will be
in the White House come January and will the program survive under
a potentially vastly different Congress.
“Something will likely slip through around election time,”
Hedlund said. “Then we’ll have to worry about any changes with next
year’s Congress and administration.”
Another piece of legislation calls for a 10 percent ramp down of
funding each year of the program.
“Even if it’s reauthorized for four years, at the end you are
only going to get 60 percent of what you had been getting,” Hedlund
said. “With the Forest Service, you don’t know in any given year
how much (timber harvest) they are going to do. It makes it so
undependable and hard to budget for the school districts and
municipalities.”
The amount of timber taken from the Allegheny National Forest
has declined over the past few years. Some legislators across the
country have called for examining Forest Service policies and if
they helped lead to a decline in the timber harvest.
State Rep. Kathy Rapp, R-Warren, whose legislative district
comprises all of Warren and Forest counties and part of McKean
County – a large amount of which is situated in the forest – called
the situation a “major blow” for the region.
“The school districts are going to feel the pinch,” Rapp said.
“This will hurt our townships too, who also receive a portion of
that funding for their roads.”
Rapp said the Forest County School District alone receives about
,750,000 from the program.
“This is going to put a big bite into their budget if they don’t
receive their funding.”
Meanwhile, the Kane Area School District receives about ,500,000
each year, Superintendent Sandra Chlopecki said previously.
McKean County Commissioner Chairman Joe DeMott said a lack of
funding would hurt the county’s agencies that apply for help in the
hopes of obtaining a portion of the timber funds.
“It’s an important funding source for our area,” DeMott
said.
