The Safety Net Debacle

There is a sign at my local library (in Douglas County, Oregon) that reads "Percentage of Library Funding paid for by your Property Tax: 0%. Percentage of Library Funding paid for by the Safety Net: 92%." It's a sign that, quite frankly and if I may use a colloquialism: freaks me out.

The "Safety Net" is the local name for the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000. It was enacted to help rural communities whose budgets were being crippled by the steadily declining rate of return on federally owned timberlands. 46% of the land in Oregon is forestland and about 57% of that is owned by the federal government. If you want another way of looking at it: 10 percent of Federal Forestland exists within the borders of Oregon. That means that the federal government controls about 25% of the land within Oregon's borders. That's 25% of its own land that Oregon does not control.

Until 2001, 25% of the revenue gained from harvesting the timber contained within the federal lands went to the State and its Counties. In 2001, the "Safety Net" (or the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000) was created. The Safety Net changed the law from each state getting 25% of revenue made that year to a lump sum based on the highest revenue generated within the state between the years of 1986 an 1999 to be paid annually. Oregon received the largest amount each year, around 146 million, because of all fifty states, it houses the highest percentage of federally owned land.

The catch? The Safety Net was intended to be temporary and would only be renewed until September of 2006.

Uh-oh.

In many cases, the grace period would have been enough to find other ways of gaining county funding. In Oregon's case-most of the rural counties are covered in federally owned land, eliminating the opportunity for the counties to develop or sell the land (both for industrial and personal use) for profit and unfortunately, because of economic and environmental (e.g.: The Spotted Owl) issues, the federally owned land has not regained its former profitability. An emergency one-year-renewal was proposed in Congress, but was voted down. That means that most counties are left with NO federal funding.

And it's killing them.

Other ways of funding the counties have been attempted. Doug Robertson, Douglas County Commissioner, and the Association of O&C counties proposed a rescue comprised of four trust funds that would be funded by the sale of BLM-owned land. Unfortunately his solution wasn't picked up by congress. An emergency spending clause was put into a recent bill in the House of Representatives. It was designed not only to help fund communities that had been dependent upon the Safety Net but to also help farmers and ranchers who met with economic disaster last year because of environmental issues (e.g.: the five day frost that crippled the California Orange Groves). That bill passed both the House and the Senate but was met with a swift Veto by President Bush because the bill also included language regarding the funding of the war in Iraq and the removal of our troops overseas.

The House of Representatives then pulled the emergency spending language out of the first bill and made it into a separate bill, HR 2207. The good news is this: HR 2207 passed the House in roll call vote 336 with 302 in favor and 120 against. The bad news is this: should the bill pass the Senate, the President is promising to threaten this bill as well.

According to a release reported on by The Delta Farm Press, the current Administration feels the farm economy (also covered by HR 2207) is strong. And the Curry County Reporter writes that the Administration doesn't feel that the situations fit the definition of "emergency."

Perhaps President Bush should come out to Southern Oregon.

Jackson County has had to close its library system down entirely. Other counties have laid off the majority of their workers. The law enforcement offices are crippled. Our schools are already severely under-funded. How will they survive if they lose another $33 million from their budget? Coos County might have to close its entire Public Health department.

If that's not an emergency, I don't know what is.