EUGENE (AP) — Lane County commissioners are preparing for life after government payments to timber-dependent counties, and about 100 employees are expected to lose their jobs — by this summer.

The county is planning a budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 and has drawn up three possibilities. In each case, 100 to 110 jobs would be cut. What varies is how soon.

Like many in Oregon, Lane County has depended on payments from the federal government to compensate for long-term reductions in logging in federal forests. For Lane, the $40 million a year has paid for a third of its general fund expenditures and half of the road fund.

The Congress has approved a one-year extension of the payments, and that runs out June 30.

So, the county has prepared budgets that cut about 7 percent of the work force. One would cut them as of July 1 if the Congress doesn’t approve any money. The others phase out jobs, the latest going in 2013.

The commissioners have two choices, said board chairman Faye Stewart: Cut now or cut later. “Other than that, we’re at the mercy of the federal government,” he told the Register-Guard newspaper.

U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon said members of Congress want a cut of the timber money for their states, and the most realistic outlook is for a multiyear package with lower payments for counties such as Lane. He said he’s seeking another one-year extension of the payments.

Josh Kardon, chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, said Wednesday that a reduction of the timber payments over the coming years is the best that can be achieved, given the opposition of senators to the timber-aid legislation that long favored a handful of states, including Oregon.