Editorial: Wrong way to provide assistance

Friday, Nov. 5, 1999 | 8:58 a.m.

At the turn of this century, as part of the overall legislation creating a national forest system, a policy was approved that requires revenues generated from timber sales on U.S. forest lands to be sent to the states for county schools and roads. The rationale for this was simple: The enormous amount of federal land in these counties severely shrinks their property tax base, so the national government decided to offer a subsidy to help defray the costs for public schools and roads. Without revenues from timber sales these counties, most of which are located in the West, might otherwise struggle to offer basic government services.

Those counties that rely heavily on logging to support their local economies have had a tough time in recent years as logging has decreased substantially. Since the payments essentially are tied to the amount of logging, that means there is less money to go around. Last year the Clinton administration proposed to sever this link between payments and timber sales, instead providing a more stable source of funding. The reason was twofold. First, it's unfair to tie public education payments to such an economically volatile industry. Second, what this program does is offer a perverse incentive to cut more trees in our national forests -- even if it's not needed -- in order to support necessary educational programs.

Some of the counties have been hit hard. For instance, California counties received $47 million in 1993 from these timber revenues, but last year they stood at $30 million, according to the Scripps-McClatchy Western Service. Earlier this week the House did approve additional funding for these counties, adding $173 million to the $273 million that was appropriated last year. Here in Nevada the amounts aren't as significant as in other states, but they still offer help. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., who voted for the legislation, said Nevada would get an increase of $103,100 over the state's 1996-98 annual average of $338,600.

While it's encouraging to see counties get more, it is disturbing to see the House pass one timber industry-backed provision of the legislation, which allows counties to divert 20 percent of these payments for community projects other than public education and roads. The danger is that this program could evolve into pork-barrel projects, taking money away from education. Even more troublesome, though, is that Clinton's plan to eliminate the tie between timber sales and payments was rejected, so the link still remains. Federal funds should be given to these counties, but Congress should sever the tie between payments and logging in national forests. The existing policy is irrational and will continue to result in forests unnecessarily being harvested.