Montana’s U.S. senators are getting behind a new bill they say will help Montana’s most rural timber counties round-out their budgets.

Mineral County Commissioner Duane Simons says communities like his are reeling after Congress failed to renew the Secure Rural Schools Act last fall. “I mean, we’ll just have to cut back on services and start looking at other cuts that we can do anywhere that we can because that’s a tremendous shock to us. It’s unbelievable.”

The act helped support counties that used to rely on revenue from federal timber sales. Because states are now only getting a quarter of total receipts from those sales, Montana’s share plummeted this year. “It puts us is a real tough spot,” said Jeff Burrows, a Ravalli County Commissioner. “Hopefully we’ll get enough lobbying back in D.C. and they’ll see the impacts to counties and they will move forward with funding it.” That was almost two weeks ago.

Now Montana’s senators are supporting a new bill to revive Secure Rural Schools (SRS) funding. Democrat Jon Tester, is co-author of the bill. It would fund SRS for three years at 2011 levels. That’s about $23 million for Montana.

The bill also permanently funds the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program. Those payments are made to 55 Montana counties with federal lands that aren’t taxable by local governments. They are fully funded this fiscal year, but future funding isn’t guaranteed.

From Montana Public Radio: https://mtpr.org/post/srs-funding-bill-could-bring-relief-montana-timber-counties