County Commission Update

Hi Folks,

Last week was the Montana Association of Counties (MACO) mid-winter meetings in Helena. Monday, I attended the Agricultural Committee meeting and the Coalition of Forest Counties. Both Committees had speakers that talked about various issues. One of the discussions in the Ag. Committee continues to be the threat of Brucellosis spread through buffalo and elk. I don’t think we have any good answers to the problem.

One of the biggest issues in the Forest Counties Coalition is Secure Rural schools (SRS) payments, or more accurately, lack of payments. Counties used to receive 25% of timber revenues produced on the National Forests. After most of that revenue dried up, Congress promised the SRS payments to make up for that lost revenue. Now Congress is going back on their word and are planning to cut these SRS payments out.

They have not been authorized for 2016 or 2017. This is a pretty big hit for most forested counties. One of the regional Forest Supervisors spoke about Montana having the honor of providing the Capital Christmas Tree this year from the Kootenai Forest in Lincoln County. I suggested that we should show them what the forests are really like in much of Montana and send them a black tree or a bug killed tree. I actually got a rather large ovation.

Most of the rest of the week was spend listening to reports from all of the various State Department Directors and attending several workshops.

FYI: In 1964 when lighting the Capital Christmas Tree became a yearly tradition the tree was a 24 foot Douglas Fir from Pennsylvania that cost $700.00. The 2016 tree was an 80 foot Engelmann Spruce from Idaho that cost an estimated $600,000.00.