§2605 — Title 43 Public Lands | U.S. Code

Summary

Starting March 1, 1938, money in the Oregon and California land‑grant fund must be split each year into three parts: 50%, 25%, and 25%. Half (50%) goes to the counties where the revested grant lands are. That payment starts on or after June 30, 1938, and continues every year. Each county gets a share based on how much its grant lands were worth on the 1915 tax rolls compared to the whole State of Oregon in 1915. If some grant land in a county had no 1915 assessment, it is counted at the county’s average assessed value. One quarter (25%) is used first to pay county tax claims that came due before March 1, 1938 under the July 13, 1926 law. The Secretary of the Treasury pays those amounts after the Secretary of the Interior certifies them, until those old claims are gone. After those old claims are paid, that 25% is credited to the Treasury general fund to repay charges made against the land‑grant fund. If, after the old claims are cleared, the 50% payments in any year are less than 78% of the total tax claims for 1934, up to three‑fifths of that 25% may be used that year to make up the shortfall. The final 25% is for running this program in amounts Congress sets. Any unused part of that last 25% goes to the Treasury general fund and is used to help repay the fund’s reimbursable charges until those are paid off.

Title 43, §2605

Public Lands — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

On and after March 1, 1938, all moneys deposited in the Treasury of the United States in the special fund designated the “Oregon and California land-grant fund” shall be distributed annually as follows:

(a)Fifty per centum to the counties in which the lands revested under the Act of June 9, 1916 (39 Stat. 218), are situated, to be payable on or after June 30, 1938, and each year thereafter to each of said counties in the proportion that the total assessed value of the Oregon and California grant lands in each of said counties for the year 1915 bears to the total assessed value of all of said lands in the State of Oregon for said year, such moneys to be used as other county funds: Provided, however, That for the purposes of this subsection the portion of the said revested Oregon and California railroad grant lands in each of said counties which was not assessed for the year 1915 shall be deemed to have been assessed at the average assessed value of the grant lands in said county.

(b)Twenty-five per centum to said counties as money in lieu of taxes accrued or which shall accrue to them prior to March 1, 1938, under the provisions of the Act of July 13, 1926 (44 Stat. 915), and which taxes are unpaid on said date, such moneys to be paid to said counties severally by the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, upon certification by the Secretary of the Interior, until such tax indebtedness as shall have accrued prior to March 1, 1938, is extinguished.From and after payment of the above accrued taxes said 25 per centum shall be accredited annually to the general fund in the Treasury of the United States until all reimbursable charges against the Oregon and California land-grant fund owing to the general fund in the Treasury have been paid: Provided, That if for any year after the extinguishment of the tax indebtedness accruing to the counties prior to March 1, 1938, under the provisions of Forty-fourth Statutes, page 915, the total amount payable under subsection (a) of this section is less than 78 per centum of the aggregate amount of tax claims which accrued to said counties under said Act for the year 1934, there shall be additionally payable for such year such portion of said 25 per centum (but not in excess of three-fifths of said 25 per centum), as may be necessary to make up the deficiency. When the general fund in the Treasury has been fully reimbursed for the expenditures which were made charges against the Oregon and California land-grant fund said 25 per centum shall be paid annually, on or after September 30, to the several counties in the manner provided in subsection (a) hereof.

(c)Twenty-five per centum to be available for the administration of this subchapter, in such annual amounts as the Congress shall from time to time determine. Any part of such per centum not used for administrative purposes shall be covered into the general fund of the Treasury of the United States: Provided, That moneys covered into the Treasury in such manner shall be used to satisfy the reimbursable charges against the Oregon and California land-grant fund mentioned in subsection (b) so long as any such charges shall exist.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

Act of

June 9, 1916, referred to in subsec. (a), is act

June 9, 1916, ch. 137, 39 Stat. 218, which is not classified to the Code. Act of

July 13, 1926 (44 Stat. 915), Forty-fourth Statutes, page 915, and said Act, referred to in subsec. (b), mean act

July 13, 1926, ch. 897, 44 Stat. 915, which is not classified to the Code. This subchapter, referred to in subsec. (c), was in the original “this Act”, meaning act Aug. 28, 1937, ch. 876, 50 Stat. 874, which is classified principally to this subchapter. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Tables. Codification Section was formerly classified to section 1181f of this title prior to editorial reclassification and renumbering as this section. Section comprises all of title II of act Aug. 28, 1937, except the last par. which is set out as a

Repeals

note under section 2601 of this title.

Amendments

1976—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 94–273 substituted “September” for “June”. 1954—Subsec. (a). Act June 24, 1954, inserted proviso relating to determination of assessment.

§2605 Oregon and California Land-grant Fund; Annual Distribution of Moneys