Posted on 12/15/2007 10:37:06 AM PST by george76
The Senate removed a provision from the energy bill that would have extended for four years payments to rural counties that once depended on federal timber money to pay for schools and libraries.
A House bill approved last week would set aside more than $1.5 billion to compensate 700 rural counties in 39 states -- mostly in the South and West -- that were hurt by federal logging cutbacks in the 1990s. An additional $350 million would have gone to rural states through a program that reimburses state and local governments for federally owned property.
The timber plan had support from lawmakers in both parties, but was dropped in final negotiations Thursday as Senate Democrats ...
The Senate fell one shy of the 60 votes needed to bring the bill to a vote. Republican Sens. Gordon Smith of Oregon, Orrin Hatch of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined all Western Democrats in supporting the call for a vote.
All other western Republicans opposed it.
"Congress had a golden opportunity to do what's right for rural America, but they chose to turn their backs on our Main Streets,'' said Sen. Max Baucus...
"A minority of senators on the other side of the aisle are denying rural counties their lifeline,'' Kardon said. "In this case 40 senators supported President Bush in stiff-arming rural counties.''
"Without an extension of this successful program, schools will begin to lay off teachers and librarians..."
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.com ...
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Greg Walden, R-Ore., blamed Senate Democrats, calling the removal of the timber payments “one more in a long list of failures by the leadership of this Congress to get its work done and solve the problems real people are facing every day in our country.’’
On the bright side there’s still money for the Department of Education, PBS and NPR.
Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., who led House efforts to secure the timber payments, called the Senate action devastating news for rural counties that depend on federal funding for services such as schools and law enforcement.
Washington might justify this kind of funding, but Washington should be out of the education/school business altogether.
Without an extension of this successful program, schools will begin to lay off teachers and librarians...
Yup. Whether dims like it or not, small communities have small timber owners AND large ones which employ a ton of people (as does my company).
My home town was decimated by the effects of the spotted owl. As one envirinmentalist said - "there are pleanty of jobs in tourism".
But heavan help if there is a man hole cover loose in some Eastern city......
Those timber sales is what pays for our county road crews.
They are a great crew too.
They are out at 3-4am prepping the roads when the black ice and snow hits.
And keep the roads clear when boulders/trees/mudslides which are typical here on the Coast Range roads.
Lastly keeping the roads in good shape overall free of potholes and deterioration.
Washington should let the rural communities log trees, mine for minerals, fish and hunt ...
By ‘vacating’ allotments, the beaurocrazies have closed many small businesses and rural communities.
Way too much planning. Every time they plan something something else results and they have to plan even more.
Yeah and then the teachers left get double duty.
We have a family freind who started out working exclusively in Spec. Ed preparing all the IEP’s now our friend is doing that full time job and mandated to teach at a school with severly troubled youths.
Many who taught when my son was a student have left and they tell me all the same thing.
We love our kids we hate the adminastrators who have come in.
We use to have an Alumni BBQ every year for our kids who are severly disabled and have or currently attend school in our district.
None of us show up now that the PC Libs have moved in and screwed up the great educational system we had.
We cannot even do a pot luck all food has to be store bought/prepared.
A father who is now a retired police officer use to make some home made kick butt Pork and Beans and I don’t even like pork and beans well that is no longer allowed.
All the good teachers who have retired don’t show up and the last Alumni we attended 5years ago was all progressive libs and they even have tried refusing using district busses to get the kids from class to the event...mind you these are wheelchair bound kids who need a WC lift bus to get there.
The idea was to ruin and stop our Alumni BBQ.
Yep. Same problem the Soviets had with their centralized planning and 5 year plans.
Hmmm, if we have the same solutions and problems as the old Soviets, what does that make us?
Our county received $9 million a year in Secure Schools payments. This amount was based on a formula of the average 25% of the profit from timber receipts we used to get off our National Forests when they were logged. This was used exclusively for schools and roads. Before they gave us a one year extension last year, we were looking at being unable to plow snow off raods in the winter and maintain the roads in general. Now, post Northwest Forest Plan (spotted owl) and with non-paying Stewardship Contracts, the default to timber receipts will average about $250,000.
They also removed the full PILT payments. This is the In-Lieu of Taxes payments that the federal government pays to the County and states for its federal lands. It is based on a small percentage of the frozen value of the land when withdrawn - in our case 1904. Not only is it pennies on the dollar, it has not been fully funded in years.
In our County, 65% of the land base is in federal lands. That leaves us without the tax base to adequately fund basic services and restricts our land-locked communities from physical and population growth.
Remember the Appalachian area in the 1950s with its poverty? - That is what our federal government is re-creating in its policy on Western rural lands.
The ugly results of the enviro freaks of many years ago using the spotted owl to start the slow death of the timber industry in the Northwest are all too apparent and the moonbat libs supported them all the way, it’s criminal!
Hey did you ever catch that Documentary about Philomoth Oregon.
The Timber Families who funded scholarships for college wanted to pull those funds when the enviro whacks came in to the schools and started teaching anti logging ect.
Very good example to what has happen to the very rural areas here in Oregon.
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Iffen they hadn’t prevented the timber harvest there wouldn’t be any problem at all, now would there?
I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help you.........
The eco nuts love to see small rural communities fail.
This is just another way to attack working families.
The eco nuts are against commercial fishing, mining, family farms and ranches...
They believe that food just comes from a box or a can.
Eco nuts go crazy when one talks about timber being a renewable resource.
They hate logging for homes, but are starting to like logging for ‘bio mass’ stuff.
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