Plumas County officials are scrambling to help rescue a federal program that has bolstered local schools and roads for over a century.
At stake is around $3.4 million in federal funds designated for Plumas County schools and roads through the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act. Funding for 2025 is uncertain after last-minute Congressional budget negotiations in December failed to reauthorize the act, which in 2024 pumped $33.7 million into California’s rural counties.
Plumas County would be hard hit without these funds, said Supervisor Kevin Goss, chair of the board of supervisors.
“It would put enormous strain on a county already financially stressed,” Goss said. “Without these funds we would have to look to drastic measures.”
The Secure Rural Schools funds are equally divided between the county and the school district. Last year’s share of $1.7 million to the county was allocated to roads, Goss said.
For Plumas Unified School District and the county office of education, operating without its $1.7 million share would be “a very big deal,” said David Keller, District 2 board representative.
“That is not a small amount of money for a small district like ours.”
Andrea White, interim superintendent of the education office, has joined school superintendents across the state to lobby for Secure Rural Schools. The county supervisors have sent letters and worked to urge reauthorization with regional representatives that include Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale) of California’s first district.
A history of federal support
Congress established legislation in 1908 to support rural counties nationwide, where the tax base is limited by federal land ownership. The U.S. Forest Service managed 72 million acres at the time. Today, the agency manages approximately 196 million acres.
National forest lands in Plumas County total 1.1 million acres – 70% of the county’s land base. Most is managed by the Plumas National Forest, with the Lassen forest managing nearly 150,000 acres and the Tahoe around 11,500 acres of land.
Historically the funds allocated to Plumas County were generated by timber sales. As logging on national forests waned toward the end of the last century, Congress acknowledged the effect on rural counties. After decades of declining agency revenues, in 2000 federal legislators passed the Secure Rural Schools Act to help stabilize the funds available to rural counties. Title I is designated for the benefit of public schools and public roads.
Congress has reauthorized the act almost continuously since 2000. In December 2024, however, the legislation died on the house floor. House Speaker Mike Johnson did not put it forward for a vote after House Republicans could not agree on how the bill should be funded.
New life for federal funding?
Since then rural counties have been reeling as they face the potential loss of this funding. LaMalfa responded Feb. 14 by introducing legislation to reauthorize the 2000 act. His Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act is cosponsored by a bipartisan coalition representing rural areas in Colorado, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Washington and Montana.
The funds help keep classrooms running and support vital services like public safety and infrastructure, LaMalfa said. “Without this funding, rural areas would struggle to provide even the most basic services,” LaMalfa said in a press release.
The Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act would approve payments through fiscal year 2026. Without reauthorization, these critical payments will expire, leaving many counties struggling to fund schools, road maintenance and emergency services.
Keller responded to LaMalfa’s legislation with tempered relief. “We are counting on it working out. We are confident that representatives of our general area will go to bat for us,” he said.
The bipartisan bill has not yet been scheduled for a hearing.
