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Washington • If a resident doesn't pay property taxes for five years, the government can seize that person's home. So if the federal government doesn't pay its due for large tracts of public lands, local elected officials reason, counties should be able to take it over.
That's the argument from Sevier County Commission Chairman Gordon Topham, who joined fellow local officials in Washington this week to lobby Congress to fully fund a program that has doled out hundreds of millions of dollars since 1976 but is again, possibly on the chopping block.
The Payment In Lieu of Taxes, or PILT, program helps counties make up for non-taxable federal tracts by giving cash to local governments trying to pay for law enforcement, firefighting, search and rescue and even garbage collection. Utah counties received some $37 million this year from the program but Congress hasn't included any more PILT cash for the coming fiscal year.
Topham, whose county has nearly a million acres of public land, says that's where he wants to treat the feds like deadbeat taxpayers.
"I'd like to do that to the federal government," he said Thursday. "'Hey, if you guys don't pay your taxes for five years, then it becomes the county's and we'll decide what to do with it.'"
Counties, primarily those in the West, have been getting annual PILT payments, though sometimes later than expected, and the uncertainty with congressional approval has officials worried.
" We'd be happy to have the land and not worry about PILT," says Washington County Commissioner Alan Gardner. "That's the ultimate goal is to get the federal lands returned to the states where they're supposed to be."
Although there are efforts on that front, members of Congress from the West are pushing to get the program funded for five years or more at a time.
"This is not an entitlement; It's not a handout; it's not an earmark," says Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. "This is not something the government should attach as an incidental benefit to something else. This is an affirmative obligation of the federal government."
Last year's federal budget didn't include PILT and Western politicians rushed to include the money in the farm bill, though only for the current year. Congress will take up a more permanent spending bill in December during an expected lame-duck session.
Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, promised county leaders to do everything in his power to make it happen.
"This is money that is absolutely essential," he said. "I will do everything I can to put this on more permanent funding [status], so we don't have to go year-to-year."
The National Association of Counties notes that more than 60 percent of counties nationwide have some federal land within their boundaries, and that while average property taxes yield $13.59 per acre, the federal government only doles out $2.58 per acre. Lee called that "pennies on the dollar" and said it was unfair that residents who live closer to the public lands have to foot a significant burden for the federal government's property.
Sen. John Walsh, D-Mont., noted that rural areas face unique challenges – like providing search and rescue operations for vast, wide-open areas – and the federal government should be paying its share to help out.
"Please keep up the pressure on us to do this," Walsh said.