Federal lawmakers are scheduled to vote on a bill today that could re-authorize millions of dollars going to Lane County and provide funding for critical county services that were recently cut from the 2008-09 budget.
Congressman Peter DeFazio, D-Springfield, has been trying since December to get his extension of federal county payments to a House floor vote, a payment program that provides 33 Oregon counties nearly $280 million annually and Lane County about $45 to $50 million annually. He has finally succeeded, and the House is set to vote on his bill today.
“Given the looming economic disaster facing Oregon without an extension of federal county payments, this vote could not be more timely,” DeFazio said in a press release.
The Lane County Budget Committee spent the past two months in panic mode as it was forced to drastically reduce public safety positions, health programs and a number of services that support the community. The county missed out on nearly $50 million in federal funds for the first time this century, which are meant to offset failing timber sales, a major contributor of the county’s revenue.
DeFazio’s bill offers rural Oregon counties a four-year payment plan that is gradually reduced each year by 10 percent through 2012.
H.R. 3058, the Public Land Communities Transition Act, would replace the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act that expired in 2006.
Counties received a one-year reprieve of the payment in 2007 that was attached to the Iraq war funding bill. President George W. Bush has been adamant about his threats to veto any war spending bill this year that is loaded with domestic spending.
The only reprieve counties now have would be DeFazio’s bill.
“For years, my main focus has been finding a way to ensure these payments continue, to keep rural schools open, roads maintained and law enforcement patrolling,” DeFazio said.
The bill is slated to be voted on by House representatives today and would need a two-thirds majority to pass onto the Senate floor for a vote.
Oregon Senators Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden have both offered their support for a 4-year payment plan.
Tom Towslee, a spokesman for Wyden, said the senator is “excited to see what comes over from the House.”
If passed without amendments by the Senate, the bill would head to President Bush’s desk for signature into law. He has not voiced opposition to the four-year plan offered by DeFazio.
The two biggest possible road blocks the bill will face are partisan in-fighting and funding source discrepancies.
The House’s recently approved PAYGO rules mandate that spending bills now have to recognize where the funds draw money from.
DeFazio has said the county funding would come from closing a loophole in oil and gas leases.
However, the Senate has another idea where the funding would come from, and President Bush has his own thoughts of where the money might be drawn from, said Alex Cuyler, the federal lobbyist for Lane County who is following the bill’s movements.
Cuyler also said that conservative Democrats, known as blue dog democrats, could join House Republicans who “are pretty unhappy right now” in opposing the bill.
With all the opposition facing the bill, Cuyler ominously said, “I’m only about 25 percent sure that this bill will end up being signed by the president.”
Even if the bill does make it past the president’s desk, it would have to be approved by June 24, one day before Lane County Commissioners plan to adopt the 2008-09 budget, in order to be applied to the current budget and save the already cut programs, said David Garnick, head of the county’s budgeting staff.
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