LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – This week Congress approved a two-year reauthorization of legislation that helps fund local schools and road projects.
The Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 was included as a policy rider to H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, also known as the “Doc Fix.”
Congressman John Garamendi and Congressman Mike Thompson both voted for the bill, which President Barack Obama signed into law late Thursday.
The Secure Rural Schools Act was meant to address the impact on county governments that resulted from the reduction in timber harvesting on federal forest lands.
The act expired in September 2013, which resulted in a loss of funding in 2014 to support critical programs in local schools and forested counties across the United States, according to the Rural County Representatives of California, or RCRC.
H.R. 2 will provide California’s forested counties with more than $53 million in Secure Rural Schools funding for fiscal years 2014 and 2015, RCRC reported.
“Secure Rural Schools funding is critical to California’s rural counties, and we appreciate the reauthorization provided by Congress and the president,” said Lee Adams, RCRC Chair, and Sierra County supervisor. “It’s now time to identify a long-term, stable funding source for forested counties and local schools to maintain vital programs, and avoid interruptions in services and operations.”
In January, the Lake County Board of Supervisors joined 26 other RCRC member counties in adopting resolutions to urge Congress to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools funding, as Lake County News has reported.
RCRC said its officers used those resolutions in federal lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C. in February.
For his part, Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg told Lake County News that his lobbying consisted of contacting the offices of Garamendi and Thompson, “Both of whom have been very supportive of the Secure Rural Schools Act,” he said.
RCRC reported that Lake County received $441,066.56 in Secure Rural Schools funding in 2013.
With no 2014 reauthoriziation, in February the US Forest Service released payments based on a 1908 law requiring it to share with states 25 percent of gross receipts from timber sales, grazing, minerals, recreation, and other land use fees on national forests, with those funds to benefit public schools and public roads in the counties in which the forests are situated.
Those funding amounts were far reduced from what the Secure Rural Schools act offered; Lake County's payment from the US Forest Service totaled $13,653.32, compared to the estimated $419,013.23 it was to have received for 2014, according to RCRC.
Now, for 2015, RCRC's estimate is that Lake County should receive $398,062.57 in Secure Rural Schools funding.
RCRC said H.R. 2 also expedites the Secure Rural Schools payments to counties by requiring the federal government to make payments within 45 days of the bill’s enactment.
Falkenberg said when the federal government distributes the funds, half goes to the schools and half to the county government. County officials have said they use their portion of the funds for roads.
“Speaking of the half that comes to the schools, it is the County Board of Education's responsibility to determine how that is split out,” Falkenberg said.
He said the formula the County Board of Education uses was created more than 20 years ago.
The Lake County Office of Education defers distribution of the Secure Rural Schools funds by one year as part of that original formula. Falkenberg said a result of that has been that the schools have continued to receive funding even in the year when the reauthorization had languished.
Falkenberg said a portion goes to the community college districts along with all of the county's school districts, regardless of whether or not they have national forest lands in their districts.
The Lake County Office of Education gets a small portion of the money, too, said Falkenberg.
“We use it support the observatory,” he said, referring to the Taylor Observatory-Norton Planetarium in Kelseyville.
The Lake County Office of Education budgets $20,000 annually for the observatory, which covers a coordinator and stipends for docents who put on presentations, Falkenberg said. The observatory also receives funding support from the Friends of Taylor Observatory.
Falkenberg reported the Secure Rural Schools bill's passage to the Lake County Board of Education at its meeting Wednesday evening.
“We need to find a way to secure long-term funding for Secure Rural Schools, rather than every year having it attached to a different bill, being subject to the political whims of Congress,” Falkenberg told the board.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Secure Rural Schools funding reauthorized for two years
- Elizabeth Larson
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