President Bush signed off on federal timber payments Friday.

But Coos County’s commissioners still don’t know how much the county will receive over the next four years.

Commissioner Nikki Whitty said there are some questions about the payment formula and it may be until the end of this week before the county has any solid numbers. Until then, commissioners aren’t planning how they’ll spend it.

U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith’s office said renewal of the rural schools act would send approximately $7.1 million back to the county in 2009.

Whitty said she believed the first payment will be 90 percent of the last payment the county received and the following payments will be smaller each year, but just how much smaller is unknown.

Once the amounts are set in stone, then county leadership will meet to discuss how the county will plan for the future. That will include talk about what may happen with the law enforcement and public health tax levies on the Nov. 4 ballot.

“If we don’t stretch it over time, we will be in the same boat we were two years ago,” Whitty said.