News

Barbed Wire - February 17, 2012

RCRC Turns 40 in 2012

 
U.S. House of Representatives Committee Approves Secure Rural Schools Bill

On Thursday, the House Natural Resources Committee approved on a party line vote of 26-17 the Federal Forest County Revenue, School and Jobs Act of 2012 (H.R. 4019), which would reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act (SRS) and extend the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program for five years. The bill, similar to the discussion draft released by the Committee in September, was only formally introduced on Wednesday and moved straight to the committee prior to the President’s Day recess.

Specifically, H.R. 4019 sets Annual Revenue Requirements (ARR), or quotas, for every unit of the National Forest System to generate money for funding a new County, Schools and Revenue Trust Fund. In turn, counties and schools could tap into this Trust Fund via the Secure Rural Schools program. The ARR could be met from various activities on the national forests including timber sales, grazing permits, land use permits, minerals power, and recreation. The ARR must equal 60 percent of the average annual receipts from that forest from 1980-2000. 

There was strong concern among Committee Democrats that the proposal was unrealistic and would put SRS communities at risk. Rep. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), who sponsored H.R. 3599, the companion to the bipartisan Senate SRS/PILT reauthorization, offered his bill as substitute amendment, but it was defeated. 

It is unclear when the bill might be considered by the full House of Representatives. The full text of H.R. 4019 can be found at: http://thomas.gov/home/gpoxmlc112/h4019_ih.xml . For more information, please contact RCRC’s Melissa White at mwhite@rcrcnet.org.

Congress Extends Payroll Tax Holiday Through 2012

Early Thursday morning, Congress agreed to extend the payroll tax through 2012, letting the average worker keep an extra $1,000 a year. The bill -- which contains a national jobs and economic plan worth more than $150 billion -- would extend the “payroll tax holiday” and unemployment benefits for another 10 months. Additionally, the bill includes a temporary fix for Medicare that off-sets a 27 percent drop in fees paid to doctors who treat elderly patients. This package was unsuccessfully targeted by Secure Rural Schools (SRS)-affected senators as a possible vehicle for S. 1692, extending both SRS and the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program.

U.S. Senate Begins Debate on Highway Bill, Kind Of

This week, the U.S. Senate began considering the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century, MAP 21 (S. 1813) legislation to reauthorize the nation’s surface transportation programs. Although the bill was technically the Senate‘s “business” for the week, the Senate had to overcome numerous procedural hurdles to get to any actual policy. The bill was blocked by a flurry of non-germane amendments such as the Administration’s insurance rule for birth control converge, and restricting foreign aid to Egypt. Finally, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) filed motions to whittle down the amendments to transportation-related items only.

MAP 21 is a two-year, $86 billion reauthorization of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA LU), which expired in 2009. Since then, federal highway and transit programs have been operating under numerous extensions, the latest of which is through the end of March 2012.  MAP 21 would consolidate the highway program into core areas: National highway performance; transportation mobility; national freight; congestion mitigation and air quality; and highway safety improvement. MAP 21 would also increase funding for innovative financing programs, such as TIFIA to $1 billion per year. Additionally, MAP 21 focuses on expedited project delivery by using innovative contracting, stressing early coordination between federal agencies on projects and providing incentives for accelerated project decisions. Of greatest concern to counties is the elimination of the highway bridge program and all requirements to fund locally owned, or off-system, bridges. This is particularly critical for California’s counties and cities since they own and operate over 50 percent of the bridges statewide. If this money – which has been in place since 1978 -- is eliminated, counties and cities would be forced to try and fund these projects. RCRC and CSAC are strongly supporting an amendment to MAP 21, sponsored by Sens. Bob Casey (D-Penn.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) to restore the off system bridge funding. At press time, this amendment had not yet been considered. The Senate will likely finish their work on MAP 21 after their week-long President’s Day recess, the week of February 27th. The House of Representatives plans to take up their version of the same issue with bill H.R. 7 that same week. A copy of the RCRC – CSAC letter on Map 21 may be viewed here. For more information, please contact RCRC’s Melissa White at mwhite@rcrcnet.org. 

Legislative Analyst’s Office Evaluates Governor’s Juvenile Justice Realignment Proposal – Rural Counties Urged to Take Notice

The Governor has proposed requiring counties to provide custody, rehabilitation and post-incarceration supervision for all juvenile offenders, effective January 1, 2013.  In 2007 the state shifted responsibility for the custody and probation of a large number of low-level juvenile offenders. This shift was accompanied by significant resources for counties.  Additionally, two years ago the Legislature approved that state-housed juvenile offenders be supervised, upon release, by county juvenile probation personnel. In conducting their evaluation on the Governor Brown’s latest proposal, the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) opined that the Governor’s latest proposal contained merit – provided a detailed and adequate funding model is created.

A proposal to shift the last remaining portion of the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) population is not new.  Last year, the Governor attempted to make this shift part of the realignment scheme that was ultimately adopted; however, the portion of the shift related to juvenile offenders was removed when the Legislature passed Assembly Bill 109.  One major concern with the Governor’s recent proposal is that it does not identify a long-term funding source to meet the new responsibility of supervising high-level juvenile offenders.  Nevertheless, the Governor is proposing to provide $10 million for counties to plan and transition this offender population away from state supervision. Moreover, the Governor eliminated for the remainder of this fiscal year the recent Tier 1 trigger cut that requires counties to pay DJJ $125,000 per ward on an annual basis for housing juvenile wards.

The LAO suggested the Legislature sanction the shift with the following recommendations:

  • Delay, until July 1, 2013, the date DJJ stops admitting wards

  • Allow counties to contract with DJJ for supervision/custody/programming

  • Reject the Governor’s proposed $10 million transition assistance for counties

  • Require juveniles sentenced to state prison be housed locally until age 18 or in lieu of prison altogether if their sentence would end before their 21st birthday

  • Extend local juvenile court jurisdiction from age 21 to 25 for those offenses currently eligible for DJJ commitment.

  • Establish an incentive program to reward counties who successfully prevent an increase in the number of juveniles sent to state prison.

As of the most recent data, only a handful of RCRC counties have sent high-level juvenile offenders to the state where those individuals remain in state custody. Yet, to a small county, the cost to retain one or two juvenile wards once every couple of years has the potential to be very expensive, and the programs and services for these offenders are extremely limited.

For more information please contact RCRC’s Paul A. Smith at 916-447-4806.  To review the LAO’s report please visit http://lao.ca.gov/analysis/2012/crim_justice/juvenile-justice-021512.aspx.

The Stewardship Council to Consider Recommendations for PG&E to Retain Land in Shasta, Nevada & Placer Counties

As previously reported in the Barbed Wire and to the RCRC Board, the Stewardship Council is overseeing the disposition of PG&E lands located in 16  member counties. At their upcoming March board meeting, the Stewardship Council Board of Directors will specifically consider recommendations for PG&E to retain two land areas previously designated as available for disposition. Recommendation for the Burney Gardens Planning Unit is for PG&E to retain fee title to all lands, which are located in Shasta County and consist of approximately 1,600 acres within 15 parcels. Please click this link to view: http://www.stewardshipcouncil.org/documents/Land_Conservation/Recommendations/FT%20Recommendation%20-%20Burney%20Gardens.pdf.

The second land area recommendation is for the Lower Drum Planning Unit and calls for PG&E to retain fee title to approximately 642 acres within all or portions of 16 parcels, located in Nevada and Placer Counties. To view, please click this link: http://www.stewardshipcouncil.org/documents/Land_Conservation/Recommendations/FT%20Recommendation%20-%20Lower%20Drum%20for%20PGE.pdf. 

RCRC staff will monitor the upcoming board meeting and advises that the impacted counties mentioned above review the planning unit recommendation as it relates to their respective county. For questions or comments, please contact Nick Konovaloff at Konovaloff@rcrcnet.org. 

Announcements

State Water Resources Control Board Considers Amendment to National Pollution Discharge Elimination System Permit for Pesticides Impacting Mosquito Control

The State Water Resources Control Board will hold a hearing on April 3 to receive public comment on the proposed amendment to the Statewide General National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit for vector control. Some groups find the current language of the Vector Control Permit overly restrictive for mosquito control, thus impacting public health. As written, it does not allow certain pesticides to be discharged into U.S. waters under specified conditions, making mosquito control more difficult, which in turn, raises public health concerns. Details may be accessed here. Additionally information by county regarding the West Nile Virus may be accessed at http://westnile.ca.gov/. Please contact RCRC’s Kathy Mannion at kmannion@rcrcnet.org with any comments or questions.

State Water Resources Control Board to Consider Adopting Intended Use Plan - Requests Comments

The State Water Resources Control Board (Water Board) during its March 20 board meeting will consider adopting the federal fiscal year 2011/2012 Intended Use Plan for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund Program and is seeking public comments. Please click here to view http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/grants_loans/docs/iup2010_11.pdf. Written comments are due by 12 noon on March 9, 2012, and should be sent to CleanWaterSRF@waterboards.ca.gov . Any questions should be directed to Rafaela B. Padilla at (916) 327-9978 or CleanWaterSRF@waterboards.ca.gov.

The Intended Use Plan is required by the Clean Water State Revolving Fund federal statutes and regulations, and is a condition of the yearly federal grants the program receives.  It outlines the Water Board’s business plan by identifying projects the Water Board expects to fund during federal fiscal year 2011/12 and the performance measures used to track the effectiveness of the Clean Water State Revolving Fund Program. For comments or questions please contact RCRC’s Kathy Mannion at kmannion@rcrcnet.org.