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Show Rep. Hansen criticizes House action to block in lieu funds Congressmen Jim Hansen criticized House action which blocked a move to restore $100 million for payment in lieu of taxes (PILT) to the Reagan budget. PILT is designed to compensate county governments for the loss of tax revenues caused by the presence of nontaxable federal lands within their jurisdiction. "The PILT program is one of the few federal programs that returns funds to local governments to provide basic services, while avoiding a costly federal bureaucracy. In Utah, where two-thirds of the land belongs to the federal government, these PILT funds are used by our rural counties to build and maintain roads, for law enforcement, en-forcement, and for education," Hansen said. The House's action to block PILT funding, upholds action taken by the House Appropriations Committee which rejected President Reagan's request for $45 million in PILT runds for fiscal year 1982. "It is unfortunate that these PILT funds were not restored because many of the counties in Utah and in the West do not have other ready sources of revenue to maintain all the community services that the federal lands demand," Hansen said. In his comments on PILT, Hansen rapped the House Appropriations Committee's action to increase funding for the National Endowments by approximately ap-proximately $143 million, while totally ignoring western counties. "That $143 million assures that the wealthy people of New York and other cosmopolitan areas may continue to attend their opera and to have that attendance subsidized by the federal government at the expense of Utah counties who might now have to find other sources of revenue to fund basic education, law enforcement and transportation needs," Hansen added. "Many of these Utah counties don't have any other source of money. Take Grand County for example. Three percent of Grand County's land is owned by private individuals and is taxable, while the remaining 97 percent of the land which is owned by the federal government is not taxable. How does such a county raise enough money to fill the gap if PILT is eliminated? It is very difficult," Hansen concluded. Although the House failed to fund the PILT program, the Senate will likely appropriate around $100 million for PILT. Western Senators and Congressmen are hopeful that the House and Senate will reach a compromise com-promise of between 50 to 75 million in PILT funding. |