Lawmakers: Feds should pay more for untaxed land

Unless the federal government boosts local reimbursement for lost tax revenue on public lands, some western lawmakers want to give Uncle Sam's property to the affected counties.

"If the government can't be a good neighbor, it has no business being in the neighborhood," U.S. Rep. C.L. "Butch" Otter, R-Idaho, said after introducing his bill this week to increase spending on the federal "Payment-in-Lieu-of-Taxes" program.

Under a 1976 law, cash payments are made by the U.S. Department of Interior to compensate local governments for tax-exempt federal land. The money, intended to offset losses to the private property tax base, is generally used by counties to pay for firefighting, law enforcement, schools and other services.

Western lawmakers have long chafed that rural communities with large tracts of federal land have not received the amount of money they're due under the law. During a news conference on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, a bipartisan group of western members of Congress claimed that during the past decade, rural communities have been shortchanged $1.1 billion.

Otter's legislation, co-sponsored by fellow Idaho Republican Rep. Mike Simpson, would give counties parcels of federal land equal in value to the difference between the PILT payments appropriated by Congress and the full amount authorized by law. National parks, wilderness areas and federal wildlife refuges would be exempt from the conveyances.
Headwaters: Idaho Falls Post Register