Way back in the early 1900s the President decided to withdraw land from the public domain (open and available for settlement) and reserve the land as forests. No property taxes are payable on federal lands. In many areas of the west, the federal lands make up the majority of the land base. This meant that there was an insufficient tax base and access to resources for an economic base. In a deal with county governments, Congress agreed to pay PILT (payment in lieu of taxes) based on the 1900s assessed value when the lands were withdrawn. It also agreed to give the counties 25% of the revenue it realized over economic activities on its lands - grazing, timber harvest. In states other than Oregon, half of this money went to schools and half to roads.
Our far northern CA county with 63% public lands, Pilt is rarely paid at full amount because Congress fails to appropriate the funding. Between schools and roads, however, we got $9 million in the 25% revenue cut. When the Northwest Forest Plan (spotted owl) went into effect, harvest on the National Forests and BLM lands dropped like a stone. Instead of $4.5 million for roads, we suddenly got around $200,000. Half of our road department funding was gutted.
The Secure Schools and Communities Self Determination Act provided continued payments based on the average amount of revenue we used to receive when they managed, instead of burned, the National Forests. That Act was not renewed, and we are back in the same situation. We do not have economic access to our county’s resources, we do not have sufficient tax base to support essential services, such as the road dept.
The feds want to wean us off the money, at best. At worse, they want to cut off the timber counties. Unfortunately, when they withdrew that land in the first place, they created a partnership. When they fell through on their part of the partnership, they left the counties crippled and unable to function with self-sufficiency. Unless we have economic access to land and resources, we are never going to be able to support our communities. We are left in a dependent state descending into third world status.
Can Congress duck the PILT (payment in lieu of taxes) ?
Was there an agreeent to prevent that.