By Ron Brown
GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- The spectre of little or no federal timber replacement revenue coming to Oregon counties next has some counties scrambling for the future.
Last week, Josephine County Chief Financial Officer Rosemary Padgett laid out for commissioners the best and worst-case scenarios. While Congress is discussing some form of payments in lieu of timber revenue sharing, even that would be sparse compared to past payments and those payments are ending with this fiscal year.
"We're kind of taking the approach that we're not going to get any funding, and starting to play our budget that way, and to let the people to know that, 'Hey! We've got a real problem coming!' and some cuts are coming no matter what. It's just a matter of how deep they go," said Josephine County Commissioner Don Reedy.
In the past four years, Josephine County has received almost $34 million in federal payments in steadily declining payments. This year's final payment was slightly lower than $5 million. The proposal now in the U.S. House would pay out a little over $12 million in the next five years on a declining scale, with next year's slightly more than $4 million.
