Senate considers county aid.

Byline: Matt Cooper The Register-Guard

Democratic leaders in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday announced a plan to continue crucial timber payments to Lane County and others across the country for five years.

Local officials welcomed the news, but the chairman of the Lane County Board of Commissioners cautioned that the money hasn't been approved yet and that Lane County voters will still consider a first-ever countywide income tax on the May 15 ballot.

The federal money "is not a done deal," Commissioner Faye Stewart warned. Even if Congress comes through, he added, "there's still a problem to address" in terms of county government's long-term financial needs.

Under the senators' $2.8 billion five-year plan, Oregon - the biggest recipient nationwide under the timber payments program - would get full funding, or $280 million, for one year, said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a leader of the funding effort. But after that, payments to states would decline; in the fifth year, for example, Oregon would get $112 million, or about 40 percent of its current yearly payment.

To raise the money for the aid, the federal government would close federal tax loopholes, Senate officials said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said Tuesday that he backs the plan. That's an important step forward for Wyden and other advocates of the rural aid.

But the proposal faces big obstacles. The full Senate has yet to consider the plan. Plus, similar legislation would have to pass in the House, where county payments funding is tied to a war-spending bill that the White House might veto because it requires troop withdrawal from Iraq in 2008.

The House is expected to vote on the war bill Thursday, said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore. Of the veto threat, DeFazio said, "we're going to push back hard."

Under the senators' plan, Lane County would get full funding of $47 million in the coming year but would see a big drop in money in the following years, Stewart said.

Stewart and Commissioners Bill Dwyer and Bobby Green support the income tax to make up the difference, protect county jobs and services, and to shift reliance from the whims of Congress to the certainty of a local tax.

The deadline to pull the income tax from the May ballot has passed, Stewart said. But regardless, he wants voters to have the choice of whether to pay to stabilize funding for public safety, public health and other services for the long term.

Congress enacted the Secure Rural Schools and Communities Self-Determination Act in 2000, sending money to counties nationwide that have large tracts of federal timberland. Historically, those counties received a share of federal timber sales receipts, but that revenue dropped as federal logging declined. Congress enacted the cash aid to make up for the decline. More than 700 counties in 39 states received the aid, but Congress let the program expire in 2006.

Without any federal money, counties across Oregon would make big cuts or seek new sources of revenue.

The five-year plan forces counties to plan ahead by cutting funding by 10 percent per year through 2011-2012, Wyden said.

Debate continues in the Senate over whether the program should end in 2012.

Republicans and Democrats have scuffled for several years over how to fund any continuation of the aid. President Bush has proposed selling 270,000 acres of National Forest lands to partially fund the program and phase it out in four years, Wyden and other Senate officials said. Democrats have proposed cutting tax loopholes or improving collections of tax revenue.