Misuse of rural funds puts public land at risk

On Friday, the Washington Post published an article on questionable distribution of funds under a Department of Agriculture program. The USDA Rural Development program, which gives billions of dollars in grants and low-interest loans ostensibly to aid rural areas, is funded through the Farm Bill. A descendant in spirit of FDR's Depression-era rural aid programs, the Rural Development program is supposed to give a leg up to economically challenged areas with low population density and low tax revenues. But the Post reports that much of the funding--indeed, the majority--goes toward porky projects in stable, even lavishly wealthy communities.

How does this threaten public land, you may ask? Well, out here in the West, rural county commissioners have been whining since time began about the burden that public lands place on their economies (because the federal government does not pay property taxes). Payment in Lieu of Taxes, a program designed to cover that lack, is vulnerable to Congress' political whim. The Bush Administration and western politicians of both parties have proposed, even passed, sell-offs and giveaways of public land to subsidize county economies. One Idaho congressman is proposing to give more than 5,000 acres of federal land to a county so it can sell it off for second home development and collect taxes on the newly-privatized land.

A few of those billions in Rural Development that are going to art galleries and historic home renovation on Cape Cod sure would come in handy in real rural areas--and could perhaps counter this push to sell off the commons. Don't get us wrong, we love art and history--but we love public land, too, and once it's gone it's gone.

-Eskarne