| Description |
Since 1976, the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) Program, has supplied counties with annual payments to compensate for tax-exempt federal lands. Counties with large amounts of federal public lands have complained of issues in the PILT program for decades: in some counties, the program is so important and so despised that officials call it "pennies in lieu of trillions" while other counties receive almost three times as much as much but say it's "not a big a deal." As PILT nears its 50th year, a legal and historical analysis of the program and a comparison of four Western counties show the program fails to meet two important aspects of compensation. First, PILT is currently designed to provide payment approximately close to lost property tax value, but its failure to do so shows that the program should be redesigned to meet demonstrated need for county revenue, becoming a needs-based rather than hypothetical-taxed based. Second, PILT, and all federal land payment programs, have missed the mark by failing to realize that fairly compensating counties for federal lands must also include opportunities for local input in management. By hearing counties' concerns and reforming PILT and other federal land programs accordingly to meet these two needs, Congress has the opportunity to restore the federal-local relationship in rural communities, increasing trust and cooperation, generating innovative collaboration, and improving the way these counties look at and interact with their federal lands. |
