WASHINGTON — Two key senators said Tuesday they will fight Bush administration plans to cut by 25 percent the "payments in lieu of taxes" the federal government pays to counties.
Local governments use the so-called PILT money to provide services such as search and rescue or police, fire and road maintenance on federal lands that produce no local tax base. It is a major source of funding for many counties in the West.
Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, chairman of the Senate Energy Subcommittee on Forests and Public Land Management, criticized the proposed cut as Interior Secretary Gale Norton testified before the full Energy Committee.
He noted that last year, Western senators and the Clinton administration raised the amount to be paid this year to counties nationwide from $150 million to $200 million. But Bush proposes in his 2002 budget to roll it back to $150 million again.
"While the PILT payment last year may have been an unprecedented high, in my opinion it is a recognized catch-up for the time when year after year it was not funded (fully) and didn't keep up with inflation," Craig said.
"Local units of government really do have a problem in providing services to activities on federal land that they are not paid for — emergency rescue, fire, road maintenance," he said. "Nobody pays for it except the local taxpayer."
He told Norton, "We'll work with you to see if we can't restore some of that."
Also, Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., ranking Democrat on the full Energy Committee, attacked the proposed PILT cuts. "Several of us on the committee have been working very hard to get that fully funded" up to the $350 million a year authorized by law. He criticized the budget for going in the opposite direction.
Norton, who is from Colorado, defended the cut, saying, "As a Westerner, I understand those are important payments to local communities. We have returned this to the 2000 funding level, so it is at historic funding levels."
She said Bush's overall Interior budget seeks to hold down spending but provide necessary services. Despite the PILT cut, she said other grant programs will have new flexibility that could help local governments meet funding demands.
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