Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="gst" data-source="post: 176824" data-attributes="member: 373">plainsman you might wantto read a bit before you make our claims. <a href="http://www.opb.org/news/article/no-federal-timber-payments-mean-leaner-times-ahead/" target="_blank">http://www.opb.org/news/article/no-federal-timber-payments-mean-leaner-times-ahead/</a>Federal timber payments to counties in the Pacific Northwest may be a thing of the past, after funding failed to make it into a Congressional spending bill this week.The program has been in place for nearly 15 years. It’s been a lifeline for many counties, especially in Oregon.For the past century, when timber was logged on federal land, the county where that land was located would get a cut of the profits. The reason: counties couldn’t collect property taxes on federal lands, yet still had to provide services there.“The program’s been around for a very, very, very long time and the taxing system in Oregon grew up around that program being available,” says Douglas County Commissioner Susan Morgan.But counties in Southwest Oregon, like Morgan’s, were hit especially hard financially in the 1990s, when endangered species protections for spotted owls required that the birds’ old-growth habitat be made off-limits to chainsaws- - - Updated - - -<a href="http://boisestatepublicradio.org/post/idaho-counties-struggle-federal-timber-rules-slow-harvest#stream/0" target="_blank">http://boisestatepublicradio.org/post/idaho-counties-struggle-federal-timber-rules-slow-harvest#stream/0</a>Government money, the national forest, and countiesIt wasn’t just jobs that were lost as the national forest logging heyday began its downward slide. Some of the money that communities got from the federal government was affected as well. For years, the federal government has compensated counties for some of the money they can’t make off of the federal lands within their borders. There are two main funds. Payments in Lieu of Taxes or <a href="http://www.doi.gov/pilt/index.cfm" target="_blank">PILT</a> are federal payments to rural communities that contain federal land, including national forests and Bureau of Land Management land. The goal of PILT is to help offset losses in property taxes because counties can’t tax federal lands within their boundaries. The government has handed over more than $6.3 billion in PILT payments to states since the program started in 1977.  PILT money is distributed based on a complicated formula, including county populations and how much federal land is within the county. Counties then spend the money on law enforcement, schools, roads, and search and rescue operations.<a href="http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/idaho/files/styles/x_large/public/201405/PILT_2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/idaho/files/styles/large/public/201405/PILT_2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a>CREDIT DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIORThe other fund stems from an act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1908. It directed the U.S. Treasury to make a yearly payment to states based on national forest receipts. That adds up to 25 percent of the money the government receives each year. The cash is supposed to go to public schools and road maintenance. That money continued to rise until the mid-90s when it started falling off. That act was amended in 2000 by the <a href="http://www.fs.usda.gov/main/pts/securepayments/faqs" target="_blank">Secure Rural Schools Act</a> which made it into a more uniform payment. It was designed to act as a bridge for counties, that were suffering from the a loss of timber money. The act has since expired, but has managed to hang on with renewals by Congress. Jay O’Laughlin says the law's future is very uncertain.<a href="http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/idaho/files/styles/x_large/public/201405/federal_payments_U.S._Forest_Service_2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/idaho/files/styles/large/public/201405/federal_payments_U.S._Forest_Service_2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a>Chart not adjusted for inflationCREDIT U.S. FOREST SERVICENot everyone is happy with the program. "We are a very proud people, we don’t want a government hand out, we don’t want Secure Rural Schools,” says Mark Mahon. “The people of Adams County just want to go to work, and we want to maintain and take care of ourselves, we don’t want the government to send us a check so that we can maintain our roads and put our kids through school. We have this renewable resource all around us and we can’t use it. It’s tied up.”- - - Updated - - -Yep real liberal thinking there............:;:huh- - - Updated - - -Take a look at this info kurt. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865657267/Report-States-manage-public-lands-for-recreation-better-than-feds.htmlHere is the group that did the study..........radical greedy republicans just wanting to steal the publics land according to plainsman. http://sutherlandinstitute.org/issue-core-principles/[FONT=&quot]CORE[h=1]PRINCIPLES[/h][/FONT]Inspiring ideas, transformational thoughts and powerful principles led our country from the Boston Tea Party to the Constitutional Convention, and became the foundation for the United States of America. Ideas like a free market economy, federalism, religious freedom and community-driven solutions inspire citizens to act, generate practical policy solutions and are the source for A New Birth of Freedom.- - - Updated - - -Plains....we have been thru this before right down to showing you exactly where your income tax dollars actually go and the return on investment you get back in food costs thru this nations food security programs. Do you have to be shown again how much the pennies the govt takes for food security programs are returned to you one hundred fold? Actually my income tax dollars and everyone elses paid your entire salary for years if you want to start comparing where our tax dollars go...........So how about you drop the foolish claims once and for all plains.</blockquote>

Verification: What is the most common fish caught on this site?

Reply to thread

Recent Posts

Friends of NDA