Bill Text: OR SM1 | 2013 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Urging Congress to extend Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-2)

Status: (Failed) 2013-07-08 - In committee upon adjournment. [SM1 Detail]

Download: Oregon-2013-SM1-Introduced.html

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     77th OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2013 Regular Session

NOTE:  Matter within  { +  braces and plus signs + } in an
amended section is new. Matter within  { -  braces and minus
signs - } is existing law to be omitted. New sections are within
 { +  braces and plus signs + } .

 LC 783

                        Senate Memorial 1

Sponsored by Senator GIROD; Senators BEYER, EDWARDS, HANSELL,
  HASS, MONROE, ROBLAN

                             SUMMARY

The following summary is not prepared by the sponsors of the
measure and is not a part of the body thereof subject to
consideration by the Legislative Assembly. It is an editor's
brief statement of the essential features of the measure as
introduced.

  Urges Congress to reauthorize and extend Secure Rural Schools
and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000.

                         SENATE MEMORIAL
To the President of the United States and the Senate and the
  House of Representatives of the United States of America, in
  Congress assembled:
  We, your memorialists, the Seventy-seventh Legislative Assembly
of the State of Oregon, in legislative session assembled,
respectfully represent as follows:
  Whereas the National Forest System, managed by the Forest
Service of the United States Department of Agriculture, was
established in 1907 and has grown to include approximately
192,000,000 acres of federal land, of which more than 15,000,000
acres are in Oregon; and
  Whereas the revested Oregon and California Railroad grant lands
(O&C lands) and the reconveyed Coos Bay Wagon Road grant lands,
which are managed predominantly by the Bureau of Land Management,
were once in private ownership but were returned to federal
ownership in 1916 and 1919 and now constitute approximately
2,600,000 acres of federal lands, all of which are in Oregon; and
  Whereas Congress recognized that, by its decision to secure
timberlands in federal rather than private ownership, the
counties across the United States where these lands are situated,
of which 33 counties are located in Oregon, would be deprived of
opportunities for economic development and of tax revenues for
use in providing essential public services, including K-12 public
education; and
  Whereas these same counties have expended public funds year
after year to provide services, such as road construction and
maintenance, search and rescue, law enforcement, waste removal
and fire protection, that directly benefit these federal lands
and people who use these federal lands; and
  Whereas to accord a measure of compensation to the adversely
affected rural public schools, and to counties for the critical
services they provide to both county residents and visitors to
these federal lands, and for the lost economic opportunities due
to federal as compared to private ownership, Congress determined
that the federal government should share with these rural public

schools and counties a portion of the revenues that the United
States receives from federal lands; and
  Whereas Congress enacted in 1908 and subsequently amended a law
that requires 25 percent of the revenues derived from the
National Forest System lands to be paid to the states for use by
counties where the lands are situated for the benefit of public
schools and roads; and
  Whereas Congress enacted in 1937 and subsequently amended the
O&C Act (43 U.S.C. 1181f et seq.), which requires that revenues
derived from the O&C lands and the Coos Bay Wagon Road lands be
shared with the counties in which those lands are situated and be
used for a broad range of essential public services, as are other
county funds; and
  Whereas Oregon counties dependent on and supportive of these
federal lands received and relied on shared revenues from these
lands for many decades to provide essential funding for public
schools, road maintenance and other critical public services; and
  Whereas the principal source of these revenues, federal timber
sales, has been sharply curtailed; and
  Whereas the reduced volume of timber sales from the federal
lands in Oregon has decreased the revenues shared with the
affected counties and school districts, adversely affecting
funding for public schools, road maintenance and other public
programs and services; and
  Whereas in the Secure Rural Schools and Community
Self-Determination Act of 2000, Congress recognized this trend
and temporarily mitigated the adverse consequences by providing
annual payments through 2006, with a one-year extension through
2007, a four-year extension from 2008 through 2011, and a
subsequent extension through 2012, to counties and rural public
schools across the United States, including all counties and
schools in Oregon that traditionally shared in timber receipts
from national forest lands, O&C lands and Coos Bay Wagon Road
lands; and
  Whereas the authority for these safety-net payments will expire
after fiscal year 2012; and
  Whereas without these safety-net payments, revenue sharing is
based only on actual federal timber receipts; and
  Whereas Oregon will receive more than $100 million during
fiscal year 2012, an amount that the state cannot replace; and
  Whereas Oregon uses the moneys it receives under the Secure
Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act to support
rural public schools and counties and for special conservation
projects; and
  Whereas the loss of the moneys from the Secure Rural Schools
and Community Self-Determination Act will have associated losses
of essential programs and services and thousands of jobs in both
the government and private sectors; and
  Whereas there is a need to maintain funding from the Secure
Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act for rural
public schools, road maintenance and other public services
through predictable payments to the affected counties and
schools; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Oregon:
  (1) The Congress of the United States is urged to pass
legislation that will reauthorize and extend the Secure Rural
Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000, as amended
and extended in 2008, and subsequently extended in 2012, for an
additional 10-year period, and to provide that the Act be
continued at 2012 funding levels and be funded through a
mandatory, continuing appropriation.
  (2) A copy of this memorial shall be sent to the President of
the United States, to the Senate Majority Leader, to the Speaker
of the House of Representatives and to each member of the Oregon
Congressional Delegation.
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