County picks SRS over PILT

By Terry Murry on Friday, July 7th, 2023 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories

UMATILLA COUNTY – The Umatilla County Board of Commissioners is changing the federal funding stream it receives for the large amount of federally-owned land. The county has always opted for Payments in Lieu of Taxes (also known as timber receipts). This year, that is changing to the county accepting Secure Rural Schools funds. Commissioner John Shafer said it wasn’t a hard decision to make.

“It was roughly $600,000 for Secure Rural Schools funding, or you could receive $100,000 in timber receipts,” he said. “It didn’t take a size nine hat to figure out which one we were going to go with.”

SRS funds require portions of the money be spent on specific areas, while PILT funds are less restrictive. Shafer said the county is now beginning to determine exactly what those areas are and how the funds should be dispersed.

“The schools are going to receive 40 percent of the money and the road department’s going to receive 40 percent of that money,” he said. “This is our first time doing it. I think there’s a formula but we’re still looking into that.”

Shafer said the rest of the funding will be kept in the county for things like new equipment for Umatilla County Search and Rescue.

Shafer said the vast improvement in SRS funding is due to Oregon’s U.S. senators.

“It’s because our two senators, Sen. Ron Wyden and Sen. Jeff Merkley, are very proactive on the national stage,” he said. “They’re really pushing this hard. In fact, they are the two best senators in the country in pushing for SRS and PILT payments.”