WASHINGTON – The Bush administration on Monday proposed phasing out a program that has pumped more than $2 billion into rural states hurt by logging cutbacks on federal land.
The plan would cut in half payments made to rural counties – mostly in the West – for schools, roads and other infrastructure needs. The six-year-old “county payments” law has helped offset sharp declines in timber sales in Oregon, Washington and other Western states in the wake of federal forest policy that restricts logging to protect endangered species such as the spotted owl.
Oregon received nearly $147 million this year, followed by California ($64.6 million), Washington ($41.8 million) and Idaho ($21 million).
| Hanford cleanup gets bump by Bush
YAKIMA – The Bush administration on Monday proposed boosting funding slightly next year for ongoing efforts to clean up the highly contaminated Hanford nuclear reservation. Included in the proposal was more money to continue construction of a waste treatment plant that has been plagued by skyrocketing costs and delays. Officials in Washington state offered restrained approval of the budget proposal, pleased the administration had restored spending for the plant but concerned that money may have been unnecessarily steered away from other cleanup projects at the site. Under the administration’s proposed budget for fiscal 2007, more than $1.8 billion would be spent on Hanford cleanup – an increase of about $117 million over what will be spent in fiscal 2006, but less than the roughly $2 billion budgeted for 2005. The proposal restores money for the vitrification plant to 2005 levels at $690 million. The plant will convert radioactive waste to a stable glass form for permanent disposal. |
Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who directs U.S. forest policy, called the proposal painful but necessary in a tight budget year. Rey, who as a Senate aide helped draft the 2000 law, said it was designed to help rural counties make the transition from dependence on timber receipts to a more broad-based economy.
“We’ve had six years of it now. We’re proposing another five years,” he said, calling the administration plan “an extension of a program that was never intended to be permanent.”
But Western lawmakers said the proposal amounted to a death knell for a law that many described as the most successful federal forestry initiative in decades.
“Governing is about priorities, and this proposal to cut funding to rural counties by 50 percent tells rural Oregon that we’re not very high on the administration’s priority list,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. “The administration found billions to fund subsidies for energy company boondoggles, so I have trouble believing they couldn’t find the money in this budget environment to maintain support for rural Oregon counties.”
Under the administration plan, $800 million would be authorized in a phased reduction to zero over the next five years for rural schools and other needs. Dan Jiron, Rey’s spokesman, said there was no dollar figure for the 2007 allocation.
The average $160 million per year is less than half the $380 million distributed under the program this year. In all, nearly $2.4 billion has been allocated since the law took effect in 2000.
Wyden and other critics said the cutbacks were made even worse by a plan to help pay for the program by selling off some Forest Service land that officials consider unnecessary.
Mike Anderson of The Wilderness Society called the idea of funding county payments through private land sales absurd, and said it could jeopardize a law all sides of the forestry debate support. The law will expire Sept. 30 if Congress doesn’t reauthorize it.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
