WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., has joined a bipartisan effort to restore Secure Rural Schools funding for communities surrounding Mark Twain National Forest - including Callaway County.
This funding helps to provide resources to support local schools, transportation and public safety services. In fiscal year 2015, Callaway County received $15,578.81, or $1.23 per acre of the Mark Twain National Forest. National forests and parks are exempt from paying property taxes.
"Public schools are the beating hearts of our small towns and rural communities in Missouri, and I'm not about to let up in my fight to see them get the resources they need," McCaskill said. "There's a whole lot of noise and whole lot of must-pass legislation in Washington as the year comes to a close, but I'm going to keep fighting to fund our rural schools and make sure our rural communities aren't forgotten and left on the cutting room floor."
In 2015, SRS funding contributed $3,127,881.12 in the state of Missouri. Funding expired that same year, leaving more than 775 counties and 4,400 school districts nationwide with budget shortfalls, including Callaway County and 28 other Missouri counties home to Mark Twain National Forest.
As a result of the program's expiration, Missouri counties saw more than $2 million decrease in their most recent payment, McCaskill said.
In a bipartisan letter to Congressional leadership, McCaskill and 31 colleagues asked Congress to include a reauthorization of Secure Rural Schools in any end-of-the-year legislation.
Secure Rural Schools was first enacted in 2000 as local governments faced steep reductions in timber revenue sharing. Current revenue sharing payments are no longer sufficient to support the services forest counties must provide.
McCaskill has continually advocated for Missouri's rural communities and called on this program to be fully funded. Despite calls from McCaskill and a bipartisan, bicameral group of colleagues earlier this year to fully fund the Secure Rural Schools program in President Donald Trump's budget proposal, the administration included no funding for the program.