It’s
not property taxes or gas taxes that are the source of money that make up the
$103 million dollar road fund reserve account. The source of that money are the income
tax dollars paid by the citizens of Klamath County. That was part of the
message Commissioner Al Switzer wanted to deliver to the citizens of Klamath
County when he and Commissioner’s Hukill and Linthicum appeared on the weekly
cable television program “This Week In Klamath County”.

Switzer went on to describe exactly how that money begins with your income tax
payments to the federal government, gets mixed into the federal general fund,
then allocated to be paid to Klamath, and other counties, under the secure
rural schools act.

The federal government is the single largest property owner in Klamath County
who, between O&C lands and federal forests, owns over 60% of the total land
within the county Switzer explained. Both O&C and federal forest lands in
Klamath County are associated with secure rural schools act funds, where the
federal government compensates counties that are deprived of property tax
revenue that would exist if the federal government did not own that land.

The
O&C Act of 1937 set aside approximately 2.4 million acres of
federally-owned forest lands in 18 western Oregon counties for the economic
benefit of those counties. The lands were originally granted to the Oregon and
California Railroad Company by the federal government in the 1860′s to
encourage development in western Oregon. The government took back the land in
1916. The 1937 legislation was passed by Congress to compensate counties for
being deprived of property tax revenues and a privately-owned land base for
economic development. The distribution of these funds is determined by the percentage of O&C lands within the county whenever timber is sold, regardless of where the timber was harvested. Klamath County’s share of these timber receipts is around 2.3%. Unlike federal forest timber receipts as described in the following paragraph, the O&C timber receipts are unrestricted and become part of the county general fund to be used as needed by local government.

The Twenty-Five Percent Fund Act of 1908 relates to the 11 national forests, 14.3 million acres of which are in Oregon, and is administered by the U.S. Forest Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Act provides that 25 percent of harvest receipts from a national forest are distributed to counties based on the acreage that each county has within that forest. County receipts in Oregon are dedicated to roads and schools, and cannot go into the county general fund for any other purpose.

Switzer further explained that through responsible management of both O&C and federal forest funds, Klamath County government has grown the road fund reserve account to approximately $103 million. “We’re talking about using only 4 percent for public safety. We’re not talking about breaking the bank”, he said. The money we’re talking about using, we will be able to quickly replenish when the economy recovers Switzer said.

Our position is simple said Switzer, “we believe our citizens have been taxed enough to accumulate these funds, and we want local control over how these funds need to be spent”. That’s what senate bill 189 does for us, he explained. Commissioner’s Hukill and Linthicum agreed.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading …

About Joe Spendolini

• Mail

|

• Web

|

• More Posts (45)