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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Federal Funds for Small-town WA Clear a Hurdle

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Friday, September 28, 2007   

Washington, DC – At least 26 Washington counties are hoping federal money they receive won’t be cut. The payments make up for taxes counties can’t collect on their public lands, and this week, a U.S. House committee voted for a new program that would continue the payments for four years.

After more than a year of threats the funding would end, Mike Anderson of The Wilderness Society, says small towns are relieved to learn they won't have to manage without.

"These federal payments are a big deal for many counties. Some are primarily national forestland and, for those, these payments are a significant share of their annual budget."

Anderson says, in total, $40 million goes to Washington schools and roads, and also funds projects that improve the public lands.

"It’s important for the communities that are near the public lands to receive adequate funding to run their programs and their schools. We want to be working with the counties on restoration projects that this legislation will also help fund."

Now that it’s out of committee, the House takes up the issue in October. Opponents are concerned that the Northwest receives more money than counties in other parts of the country, but Anderson says the new program uses a new formula that makes the county payments more equitable.

The U.S. House Natural Resources Committee voted to fund the Public Land Communities Transition Act of 2007 (HR 3058). The program is known as “Payment in Lieu of Taxes” (PILOT), and is administered by the Department of the Interior. It replaces the “Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act,” which was commonly known as the “County Payments” program.




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