WAYNESBORO — President Donald Trump's proposed budget includes a 12 percent cut in the U.S. Department of Interior funding that could impact Augusta County.
Virginia U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine said in a release Thursday that among the potential Interior cuts are the department's payment in lieu of taxes program, which pays Virginia counties across the Shenandoah Valley and Southwest Virginia for federally owned land.
Beth Breeding, press secretary for 6th District Rep. Bob Goodlatte, said the president's budget language for the lieu of taxes program specifically says "supports counties through discretionary funding for the payments in lieu of taxes program at a reduced level, but in line with funding for PILT over the past decade."
There are more than 200,000 federal acres in Augusta County, and the the payment in lieu of taxes has been a steady source of revenue in the county in recent years, according to Deputy Augusta County Administrator Jennifer Whetzel.
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She said the county receved $349,000 from the program in fiscal year 2014, $331,000 in fiscal year 2015 and $402,000 in 2015. "It's very significant,'' said Whetzel of the funding.
Augusta County supervisors say they will wait to see what the impact is before getting too concerned.
"The budget won't look this way when it is passed,'' said North River District Supervisor Marshall Pattie. He prefers to wait and see what is passed by Congress.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Tracy Pyles said the county does not depend heavily on federal revenues. But he said it is the leveraging of those revenues with state and local funds to provide programs that help people.
"There are things that do good and we would be obliged to keep going if there is no federal money,'' Pyles said.
The board chairman also explained that if a plane crash or other emergency incident happens on federal land in Augusta County, the county still must manage the response and use resources.
Pattie said it is fortunate that Augusta County has a diverse economy that was demonstrated by Wednesday's announcement of 69 new jobs at Hershey Chocolate in Stuarts Draft.
The supervisor said the bigger concern is the potential shrinking of federal employment in the commonwealth. "We will lose a lot more money in Virginia if the federal government shrinks dramatically,'' he said.
Kaine's overall reaction to the Trump budget was critical. The senator said in a press release that he supports the Trump administration's commitments to defense spending, but has other concerns.
Kaine said the budget's "drastic cuts threaten programs that help ensure Virginians have clean water, safe roads and bridges, well-funded public schools and quality, affordable health care. The budget also shows that President Trump intends to keep treating federal employees as a punching bag, while in reality these workers are patriotic Americans who keep our government running."
Kaine said while Trump promised clean water and air in his address to Congress, he "released a budget that completely eliminates the Chesapeake Bay program and radically cuts funding for the agency that protects water resources like the James River and monitoring sea level rise in Hampton Roads."
The senator is referring to proposed Trump cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency.