Daily Herald | Posted: Wednesday, March 28, 2007 11:00 pm
The Senate backed higher funding Wednesday for two programs important to Western states, but the measure could be derailed by wrangling over the Iraq War.
Senators approved an amendment that would add $100 million to Payment In Lieu of Taxes funding and also reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools program, which compensates counties for lost timber revenue. PILT payments make up for untaxable public lands.
It's not clear what the funding increase could mean for individual counties, said Emily Christensen, press secretary for Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah. The calculations are complicated and the legislation "is far from final," she said.
Utah counties shared just more than $20 million in PILT money in 2006, including $943,800 for Utah County, according to the National Association of Counties. Christensen said rough calculations show that the additional funding could boost payments about 30 percent.
The amendment passed 75-22. Now the Senate will consider the entire supplemental appropriations bill, which already has passed the House of Representatives in a different form.
The bill, however, is primarily about funding for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and congressional Democrats are facing off with President George W. Bush. The House version would direct troops to be brought home by September 2008, while the Senate has supported a nonbinding deadline of March 31, 2008.
Bush has threatened to veto the bill because of the troop withdrawal language and because it includes unrelated spending "that is largely unjustified and nonemergency," according to a White House statement. Bennett and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, voted for the PILT amendment.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page C2.