Secure Rural Schools program approved by U.S. House of Representatives, aimed at providing funds for rural counties

March 29, 2015

In Washington, D.C., the U. S. House of Representatives has passed legislation which authorizes funding for Secure Rural Schools. The legislation still needs to be passed by the Senate to become final. Secure Rural Schools is a federal program that was originally intended to share with counties revenue generated from federally-managed forest lands within rural counties. If this legislation is agreed to by the U.S. Senate, federal funds would be allocated to Boundary County for the 2015 fiscal year, with those funds specifically going to Boundary County schools and roads. Over the years, this program has provided substantial funding for Boundary County. Last year the county received approximately $1.2 million under the Secure Rural Schools program, with $370,745 of those dollars going to Boundary County schools, and the remaining $865,071 going to county roads. Another federal program, Payment in Lieu of Taxes, also provides funds to rural counties based on federally-manged forest lands. The Payment in Lieu of Taxes program, known as PILT, is intended to help counties that have large amounts of untaxable federal lands within their borders. The concept is, with counties unable to assess property taxes on these large federal lands, the burden of paying for government services provided by those counties is financially difficult. The PILT program is aimed at mitigating that financial burden by providing funds to make up for taxes that cannot be assessed on those lands. The PILT program for fiscal year 2015 was authorized and funded by the U.S. Congress this past December, opening the way for Boundary County and other rural counties to receive funding under that program. Those funds will likely arrive in Boundary County within the coming months. Last year the county received over $362,000 under the PILT program. In recent years, both of these programs to help rural counties that contain large amounts of federal lands have had to await periodic political wrangling in Congress before being authorized. This has caused some strain in the budgets of many rural counties that depend on those funds to help pay for schools, roads, law enforcement, and other county services. With the Secure Rural Schools program having now been passed in the House of Representatives, Senate approval is needed for the program to be authorized and funded for this fiscal year. According to a recent press release by Idaho Senator Mike Crapo, legislation that would provide for renewal of the Secure Rural Schools program and fully fund the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program was included as a part of the Senate budget framework that recently cleared the U.S. Senate. Speaking of the Secure Rural Schools program, Senator Crapo said, “County governments traditionally relied on a percentage of receipts from federal timber sales as compensation for the absence of taxable lands, but funds began drying up when harvests were down requiring a temporary solution from Congress. Until we are able to increase timber harvests to render such payments unnecessary, we must uphold our obligation to these communities to assist with funding roads, schools and other critical services.” Once the final legislation on these programs is passed and reconciled between the House and the Senate, it would go to the President for final signature to become law. Related stories in NewsBF on the Secure Rural Schools and the Payment in Lieu of Taxes programs:      -Forest Funds: Often mentioned in county and school district budgets--what exactly are they?      -One "Forest Funds" program has been authorized, county likely to receive federal payment in June