Utah to get fed land funds

WASHINGTON — Congress has approved the largest amount ever — $244 million — for a program that helps states like Utah offset the loss of property tax revenue that can't be collected on federal land.

The Payments in Lieu of Taxes program, known as PILT, is often a sore spot for Western states that comprise the bulk of federal land. Congress authorizes the Interior Department to spend almost $350 million each year through the program, but then only approves a lower figure that can actually be spent.

It was not immediately known when how much PILT money would go to Utah. In fiscal year 2005, $19.6 million from the PILT program was distributed to all 29 counties in Utah, according to one congressional office.

"It's still not enough, but we are moving in the right direction," said Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah.

Bishop and Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, sponsored an amendment that put an additional $16 million into PILT in the Interior spending bill that the House passed late Thursday. Their amendment was approved by voice vote bringing PILT to its $244 million total.

The amount is about 70 percent of the allowable level for the program, but is still the highest level ever, according to House offices.

Still, Bishop says it's far from adequate.

"How are we supposed to generate a tax base when two-thirds of our state is locked away and off the property tax rolls?" Bishop said. "PILT is simply a small effort to right this huge wrong."

Bishop said the federal government has "become an absentee slumlord in the West" and said the White House's original funding level for PILT was way too low and "a slap in the face of the West."

The Bureau of Land Management administers PILT, which covers federal lands managed by agencies such as BLM, the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service. It divides up the PILT money with a complicated formula but then transfers it to states that use it to support education and environmental programs, law enforcement, health care, search and rescue operations, and other important community services.

Cannon said it is important to keep fighting for more funding so "rural counties won't have to continue to foot the bill for lands owned by the federal government."

"This adds a modest sum to the PILT program, a sum that is important to the American people who live in these public lands communities and those who enjoy them from the rest of the country," Cannon said.

Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah said the PILT program "is a critical source of revenue for those services" and was happy with the amendment.

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E-mail: suzanne@desnews.com