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<h2><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on"><b><font size=5
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:18.0pt'>Amador</span></font></b></st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> Could Lose Federal
Funding<o:p></o:p></h2>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><a href="http://www.mymotherlode.com/News/article/kvml/1166462278">http://www.mymotherlode.com/News/article/kvml/1166462278</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Monday, December 18, 2006 - 09:30 AM<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-element:frame'><i><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-style:italic'>""It's
going to really hurt us next year, because that's money that we've really
counted on for a long time now," said Mike Carey, Superintendent for the
Amador County Unified School District."</span></font></i> <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>By Raheem
Hosseini<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Barring a
congressional miracle, Amador and hundreds of other rural counties across the
nation are in danger of losing federal funds earmarked toward schools and
roads.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Congress
adjourned last week without extending a federal law that funnels millions in
national forest reserve money to rural counties in the country. The law,
commonly referred to as the county payments law, was approved by Congress in
2000 as the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Secure</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Rural</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Schools</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>
and Community Self Determination Act. Expiring earlier this year, it was
originally enacted to offset the losses in revenue rural counties endured when
the federal government closed national forests off to development.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"It's
been flowing for us for a very long time and with good reason," said Lou
Bosetti, a consultant with the National Forest Counties & Schools
Coalition, one of the groups that supports the county payments law. "Most
rural counties don't have a lot of money to (spend on schools and roads)."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Amador
County Public Works Director Larry Peterson seconds Bosetti's comments,
explaining the county will lose a quarter of a million dollars in annual
federal funds if the law goes unrenewed.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"It's
a lot of money to lose for a small county," he said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Peterson
said the shortfall could become apparent in any number of areas, from a lack of
equipment to a mile of unpaved road.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Bosetti
said rural counties have "one last hope" for a reprieve when Congress
reconvenes next month. But if a one-year extension isn't authorized - and
Bosetti is skeptical it will - the law's supporters will almost have to start
from scratch by seeking reauthorization with a new Congress.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The 39 <st1:State
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State> counties that
receive nearly $69 million a year in forest reserve funds will get their final
payments this month or next. How these counties will fare after the federal
dollars dry up depends on whether the money has already been factored into
schools and transportation budgets, and on how much rural counties rely on
these funds, Bosetti said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"It's
going to really hurt us next year, because that's money that we've really
counted on for a long time now," said Mike Carey, superintendent for the <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Amador</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType>
<st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Unified</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">School
District</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Of the
more than $650,000 <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Amador</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> received last year
in the forest reserve funds, the school district received approximately
$260,000. Thirty thousand of that was spent on new buses for special education
students within the county's office of education, but the vast majority of the
money went directly into the district's general fund, explained Barbara Murray,
assistant superintendent of business services.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"It's
like a $236,000 hit on our general fund," <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Murray</st1:place></st1:City> said of the expected loss.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>It's a
hit that will land this summer, when the district releases its 2007-08 fiscal
year budget. With facility costs pretty much locked in, <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Murray</st1:place></st1:City> said layoffs and school supply cuts
are both possibilities.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"There's
really no funding options to replace that (money)," she added.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><b><u><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>But <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Amador</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> won't be the worst
off. The $650,000 it receives annually is considerably less than the $9.5
million <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Siskiyou</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType>
receives and the nearly $8 million <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Trinity</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> gets each year.<o:p></o:p></span></font></u></b></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Bosetti,
a former <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Tehama</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> schools superintendent, estimates
that 70 percent of his district's budget will be impacted. And then there's
Alpine, which is 85 percent federally owned.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"That
doesn't leave much for a tax base," Bosetti said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Amador
schools are comparatively lucky. The loss of $236,000 makes up less than one
percent of the district's $30 million annual budget. But for a district that
hasn't had to make cuts in the past two years, serious consideration is being
given to how the gap will be filled.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>For the
public works department, the losses could be partially offset by allocations
from the statewide transportation bond voters passed in November, though
Peterson said the the county had grown to bank on these forest reserve funds.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
apparent demise of the county payments law isn't catching local officials off
guard, though. Peterson informed the Board of Supervisors during a budget
hearing in August that it looked like support for the law had dried up.
Similarly, <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Murray</st1:place></st1:City>
said the district has been thinking about this day for the past two years.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"So
it's not like it's a surprise, but it's not anything we wanted to see,"
she said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The major
roadblock to reauthorizing the act, Bosetti said, has been "turfdom."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Congressional
leaders from areas that don't receive these funds don't understand why, while
the leaders whose districts do benefit can't come to terms on an equitable
agreement.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"There's
a pot of money and they all want some of it," Bosetti said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The end
result may be that no one gets it, with the residents of rural counties left
wondering why six years wasn't enough time to reach an agreement.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Reprinted
with permission from the <a href="http://www.mymotherlode.com" target="_top">Amador
Ledger Dispatch</a> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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