Local

For Boundary County government and Boundary County School District, hearing that the $1.27 million they stood to lose would instead be increased to $2.1 million was great news.

Two days later, the story changed.

“It appears we’re not going to get any of it,” said county commissioner Dan Dinning. “It’s devastating.”

The U.S. Senate on Sept. 23 approved a four-year extension of what’s known as Craig/Wyden Secure Rural Schools funding. In past years, the program has allocated $377,000 annually to the school district and $900,000 to the county’s road and bridge department.

The extension also called for increasing funding by 75 percent, which would’ve meant $659,000 for the school district and $1.57 million for road and bridge. All the legislation needed was approval from the House and President.

Two days after the Senate vote, Dinning informed The Herald the House had pulled the Craig/Wyden funding from the legislation.

He was disappointed.

“It would give us four years to get our finances in order, to get organized so it’s not such a terrible slap,” Dinning said.

The $900,000 represents nearly 50 percent of the road and bridge department’s budget.

“We’ve made cuts in the budget in other area and moved some money here and there to meet road and bridge needs,” Dinning said. “We have started to levy for road and bridge.”

Ron Smith, chairman for county commissioners, heard the House pulled the funding because the President reportedly planned to veto it.

“When they said they were going to do a four-year extension . . . that would give everybody the opportunity to get ready for it. We thought we were being prudent and financially responsible by not taxing Boundary County residents for roads because we were able to get funds from the national forest.”

The original Craig/Wyden Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 established a six-year payment formula for counties that receive revenue sharing payments for U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands.

The formula, based on timber receipts, provided a dedicated funding stream for rural schools which cannot collect property taxes — the schools’ primary source of funding — from federal forests and range lands.

After Congress failed to immediately renew the original Craig/Wyden authorization when it expired in September 2006, Craig succeeded in convincing the Congress to approve a one-year extension.  He again pushed the Senate to okay another one-year extension earlier this year, but the House of Representatives did not agree.