Tuesday, May 24 2011 3:48PM
Lawmakers in Oregon are urging the federal government to provide funding to some ailing rural counties in the state.
With the possibility that some rural Oregon communities may go bankrupt in the near future due to insufficient funding, state lawmakers reportedly made a formal request to the federal government to supply additional aid to those communities.
Senator Larry George, who has helped carry a bill requesting rural community grants, told the Associated Press many timber counties in Oregon need more funding, as a number of them could see their budgets run dry by the end of 2012.
"The federal government owes the state of Oregon," George told the news source. "They have hurt our schools, they have hurt our local governments ... [and] our rural economy is falling apart."
Reports say these struggling Oregon counties are finding it difficult to create new sources of revenue, as the economy has hurt many of the state's rural communities since the recession began. The AP states many counties have unemployment rates nearing or already at double digits.
In Douglas County, for instance, more than 400 jobs have been lost over the past few years, reports say.