Millions of dollars coming to Lincoln County?

The U.S. Senate will consider a bill next week which could result in millions of dollars flowing into the coffers of Lincoln County. The bill, House Resolution 2, would reauthorize funding of the Secure Rural Schools program for an additional two years.

The reauthorization is buried inside the Medicare and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 and passed the House of Representatives by an overwhelming bipartisan vote March 26.

Lincoln County Commissioner Greg Larson was pleased by the news, but said the bill is inadequate to address the economic woes of Lincoln County.

“It would be a nice thing,” Larson said. “But it’s still at best a stop-gap. We need a transition away from this dependency to a point of increased production off the Kootenai. Hopefully, one day, we won’t need this, but the transition is going to take more than two years.”

Secure Rural Schools was initially authorized in 2000 as a means to assist rural counties and those hard-hit by high levels of federal land ownership, land that is exempt from property taxes. The money is intended to off-set the lost tax revenues and to replace funds lost as a result of decreasing mining and logging activity in national forests.

Since 2004, the Secure Rural Schools program has funneled more than $36 million into Lincoln County’s budget. Those funds replace the monies paid to the county by the Forest Service as a share of timber and mining production receipts, monies which have decreased precipitously during the past decade as a result of litigation and regulation on the forest.

Larson said the transition away from dependence upon federal programs is the key to long-term economic recovery for Lincoln County. The additional funding is nice, he said, but it doesn’t create jobs in a county with the state’s highest unemployment rate.

“It’s not just about the money, it’s about quality family jobs for the people of this county,” Larson said. “We need to get the cut on the Kootenai back up again to a point where it can sustain jobs and encourage investment. It would be nice to see a mill again in Lincoln County. We’ll probably never see what we had in the past, but it would be nice to see some quality family jobs.”

The bill passed the House of Representatives with strong bipartisan support, including Rep. Ryan Zinke. The final vote was 392-37.

Similar bipartisan support is expected in the Senate, once the body reconvenes from the Easter recess April 13.

Both Montana senators, Steve Daines and Jon Tester, have previously stated support for reauthorization of the funding.

Sen. Tester’s press secretary, Dave Kuntz, said Sen. Tester is generally supportive of Secure Rural Schools funding, but is concerned about this bill for a couple of different reasons.

“Jon knows how important SRS and PILT are for Montana’s rural counties and he has introduced legislation to extend funding for these important programs,” Kuntz said. “Additionally, Jon wants to make sure we pass a bill that prevents the Medicare reimbursement rate from being cut. Without the ‘doc fix’ many doctors will stop seeing Medicare patients and many seniors will lose access to necessary health care.

“Jon hasn’t seen the specific language of amendments that will be included in the final Senate version of H.R. 2, but he’s generally supportive of a bill that reauthorizes the Medicare reimbursement rates and  includes SRS payments for Lincoln County, and other rural Montana counties.  Obviously, he would prefer to see the longer term fix for SRS but he will support a two-year provision.”

President Barack Obama has promised to sign the bill after Senate passage.

The Executive Office of the President issued a statement in support of the broader bill. “The Administration supports house passage of HR2 because it would reform the flawed Medicare physican payment system to incentivize quality and value,” the statement read.

The president’s statement did not indicate specific support or opposition to the Secure Rural Schools provisions contained within the legislation.

The bill requires payments to be sent to counties within 45 days of the president’s signature, but the exact amount is not specified in the bill. In 2014, Lincoln County received $2.74 million in Secure Rural Schools funding, down from the high-water mark of slightly more than $4 million in 2009.

The reauthorization does not include funds from the Payment In Lieu of Taxes, or PILT, program, which was created specifically to address budget shortfalls created as a result of federal land ownership in counties.

The Payment In Lieu of Taxes program has added an average of nearly $600,000 per year to Lincoln County’s budget since 2010.

The last PILT payment to Lincoln County was in 2013, in the amount of $576,300, according to information provided by Lincoln County clerk and recorder Robin Benson.

The money will provide much-needed assistance for the county as commissioners struggle to craft a workable budget for the coming year, but Larson said it’s not enough.

“It would be helpful,” he said. “But it’s not the answer. The answer is to get production off the forest, to get people working again and return to sustainable, predictable supply in order to encourage businesses to invest in Lincoln County. We need the family jobs with benefits and hopefully Secure Rural Schools will be funding to provide the stop-gap funding we need to continue to maintain county services at an acceptable level while making the transition to a much improved management and predictable harvest levels on the Kootenai National Forest. The ultimate goal would be to improve overall health of the forest as well as provide jobs.”

A request to Sen. Steve Daines’ office for comment went unanswered as of press time.

The Senate reconvenes from the Easter break April 13 and is expected to immediately begin debate on HR2.