Amador County – The California State Association of Counties last week urged Congress to support the “Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act,” due to expire this month.

CSAC Second Vice President David Finigan, in an article Friday urged support for the act, which he said “may be little known, but it is a key fixture in a county’s ability to provide the most basic services to those that work and live in a rural area.”

Finigan said 31 counties in California “will lose critical federal funding to keep our schools open and roads paved, unless the federal government reauthorizes their decades long commitment to communities with federal forest land.”

Finigan, Supervisor for Del Norte County and board member of the National Forest Counties & Schools Coalition, said California’s forest counties “are on the brink of losing nearly $70 million every year.” Impacted communities include almost two-thirds of California counties, including Amador County.

“When the federal government created the National Forest systems in the early 20th century, millions of acres of forested land were brought into federal ownership,” Finigan said. “While there were conservation benefits,” the “communities like our own must grapple with more limited economic development opportunities.”

Finigan said “we can’t build houses or businesses in the National Forest,” and “recognizing their obligation to rural communities, the federal government created a revenue sharing plan to offset the loss of economic activity in forested areas.”

That funding is “used for the benefit of public schools and the upkeep of public roads,” but the “decline in timber harvesting and other forest activities in the late 1990s dramatically reduced this funding and caused Congress to step in and pass legislation to continue fulfilling the federal commitment by passing the Secure Rural Schools Act.”

He said “unless Congress takes action, the Secure Rural Schools Act will expire in September” and loss of the funding “will have an immediate impact on our community.” He said Del Norte County could lose more than $2.5 million and 50 percent of its county road department employees.

Finigan said County Boards of Supervisors have been working with the California Congressional delegation to find a way to continue the funding.

He urged people to call their Congressional representatives “and tell them to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act before it’s too late.” He said “during these tough economic times, Congress should not leave America’s rural communities behind.”

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