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Clinton signs county money bill He also OKs Steens Mountain preservation From staff and wire reports President Bill Clinton signed a measure Monday that will provide seven years of stable income for Jackson County and other timber-dependent counties in Oregon. Jackson County Commissioner Sue Kupillas said the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 probably means an additional $4 million for Jackson County in 2001. That�s about 40 percent more than the $9.7 million Jackson County received from the federal government this year. The president also signed a bill that preserves a large section of Steens Mountain in southeastern Oregon as wilderness. The county-aid law changes the formula for distributing aid to counties that have tax-exempt federal forest land within their boundaries and provides an additional $1 billion over five years for schools and roads. Counties were formerly paid 25 percent of the revenue from federal timber sales. Under the new formula, each county will be paid an annual amount equal to the average of its three highest-paid years between 1986 and 1999. The payments will begin with the federal budget year that begins Oct. 1, 2001. Kupillas said the exact figure Jackson County would receive wasn�t available on Monday. "With all the appropriations bills cramming through," she said, "they�re not interested in starting on something that doesn�t start until October 2001." Oregon would be the bill�s biggest beneficiary, receiving about $260 million, followed by California with $65 million, Washington state with $44 million and Idaho with nearly $23 million. "This is a great day for Oregonians," said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore. "Finally annual federal payments to counties � set at historically high rates � has become law of the land." As logging on federal land declined by nearly 80 percent in the past decade, so did the aid for many rural counties. Jackson County has cut social service programs and closed parks. "Rural communities will no longer be dependent on decreasing federal timber sales to staff and equip schools and provide essential government services," a White House statement said. The statement said additional money would help over 700 rural counties in 41 states to "keep their schools strong, their emergency services operating and their roads maintained." The Steens Mountain bill creates 175,000 acres of wilderness, with grazing banned on 100,000 acres of that wilderness. Mining and geothermal development � drilling into the earth to harness heat for energy � will be banned on about 1.2 million acres. The bill creates a 500,000-acre Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area designed to maintain and improve public and private partnerships in managing the land. The legislation also trades nearly 18,000 acres of private land for 100,000 acres of government land to eliminate the checkerboard pattern of private and public ownership and to ensure that the higher-elevation land now owned by ranchers is protected. Ranchers will get nearly $5.2 million of federal money for lost productivity and disruption to their operations. "Today symbolized what Oregonians can do when they work together to solve a problem," said Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore. Walden, DeFazio and Reps. Darlene Hooley and Earl Blumenauer, both D-Ore., along with Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Gordon Smith, R-Ore., stood behind President Clinton in the Oval Office as he signed both bills. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.