Secure Rural Schools Program: Senate OKs extension of funding

The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed legislation that will extend Secure Rural Schools funding for an additional year, a move that should pump more than $1 million into Flathead County.

The Secure Rural Schools program started in 2000 as a way to compensate timber communities for revenue lost because of reduced timber harvests on federal lands.

Western Montana counties had for decades received funding from U.S. Forest Service timber harvests that declined sharply starting in the 1980s. Lawmakers determined that school and county funding shouldn’t be dependent on federal timber.

The money that comes to Flathead County is split between the county and local schools. Of the $1,592,200 million Flathead received for the last fiscal year, the county got $1,061,999 and the schools received $430,201, according to county Finance Director Sandy Carlson.

Flathead County’s take has averaged about $1.1 million annually over the past five years; the money is used to improve roads.

The Senate attached the amendment to extend the Secure Rural Schools funding to the Helium Stewardship Act passed by the House in April. The amended helium bill now goes back to the House, where it must be acted on by Oct. 1 to avoid a shutdown of the country’s helium reserve.

On Friday the House passed a separate bill, the Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act, that renews the federal government’s commitment to manage federal forests for the benefit of counties impacted by federal land.

That bill also includes the short-term extension of Secure Rural Schools payments, but may not have enough support to pass the Senate, said Ryan Yates, a spokesman for the National Association of Counties.

Yates said the association is “very hopeful” the House will pass the amended Helium Stewardship Act.

“Secure Rural Schools [funding] exists because the feds don’t do their job of managing forests,” he added.

Association Executive Director Matt Chase said that while the Senate and House may differ in their legislative solutions for future forest payments to counties, “the National Association of Counties will continue to urge leadership on both sides of the aisle to act in a spirit of bipartisan cooperation and work together to move a final legislative solution to the president’s desk.”

Flathead County is among 729 rural counties that would feel budgetary shortfalls if Congress fails to renew this federal obligation to rural county governments.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.