The Safety Net will Save Us Again?

For the last several years it has been almost impossible to live in Douglas County without hearing about the "Safety Net" However, like most of us, I didn't really understand what the "Safety Net" was and has been. I did know it was federal money that the county received from the government to make-up for not being able to tax federally owned land. I knew it was to be used for schools and roads but I didn't understand how its renewal, proposed in the president's budget, could help save the library system.  So I did some research.

Though it is often referred to as the "Safety Net", the full name of the law is the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act (2000). Before 2000, Douglas County had been compensated for the loss of property taxes by receiving a share of the reciepts from timber harvested from federal lands within its borders.Since 50% percent of the county is a patch work of federal land, the county had received adequate dollars from these timber sales to maintain, schools, roads, and other county services. (1908 - 2011 timeline here) However, with the decline in federal timber harvesting, it became clear that the county needed additional reimbursement for the non-taxed federal lands to maintain adequate county services. So in 2000 the Safety Net was initiated with a seven (7) year duration. Seven years later, in 2007, the act was re-authorized for four (4) more yea! rs but t his time the amount the county received was set to decrease each year - to "step down" - and at the end of the fourth year, the "Safety Net" funding would stop. This year is the last year of the 2007 authorization and unless it is re-authorized the county will receive only the meager amount from the diminished logging on federal lands. Commisioner Susan Morgan wrote a clear explanation of what this will mean to future county services in her "The Budget Box Encore". It's not a pretty picture. But what happens if the Safety Net is re-authorized? Will this fix our county's money problems? Are we just crying wolf?

The short answer is yes and no. Yes the reauthorization would temporarily  shore up the county budget but no one is crying wolf.

Just as in the re-authorization of 2007, the presidents proposed authorization would extend the "Safety Net" for another four (4) years. Once again the amount will "step down" until by 2015 there will again be no funding. The big difference between the 2007 and the 2012 Safety Net is the amount of the beginning funds. This time the funding would likely start at the 2011 level. As we have seen, this level of funding has required that the county departments drastically trim their budgets. The Douglas County Library System cut library staffing, reduced open hours at all branches, and stopped using county funds for purchasing new books and other materials. Many of us in the community believe that the current (2011) library budget is now less than needed to fund the library system. So even if the Safety Net is re-authorized at the proposed amounts, it is probable that, by the end of 2013, the library system will once again be threatened with closing.

It appears to me that the proposed  "Safety Net" re-authorization is not a solution but just another postponement.

by R.M. Bell
rmackbell1943@gmail.com