Letter to President Bush requesting increased PILT funding for FY 2008 |
September 21, 2006 The President Dear Mr. President: We know that soon you will be making critical decisions on your FY 2007 budget. As you do, we are requesting in the strongest possible terms that you substantially increase your requested funding for the Payments in Lieu of Taxes program (PILT). As you know, the presence of federal lands and the various activities associated with them impose substantial costs on county governments. Unlike private property, which counties can tax to pay for the costs of essential governmental services, the states and local governments cannot tax the federal government or its lands. Nearly 30 years ago Congress recognized this inequity and created the PILT program to at least partially reimburse county governments for the costs they bear because of these federal lands and activities in their counties and the services they provide the federal government. Yet, in its nearly 30 year history, PILT has never been fully funded. We are urging you to request a more realistic and fairer funding level for PILT in your FY 2007 budget of at least $300 million, which would be an increase of $100 million over your FY 2006 request. As a result of several meetings with White House staff and staff from the Office of Management and Budget and your Council on Environmental Quality, we know that there were some fundamental misunderstandings about the nature of PILT compared to other federal payments that might be made to counties. This misunderstanding may well account for the very low request for PILT funding in your FY 2006 budget to Congress, but these misunderstandings have now been corrected. We hope that your key budget advisors now understand that PILT payments represent an ethical and moral obligation of the federal government to pay the costs it imposes on these counties. Taxpayers in these counties are literally subsidizing the federal government in the amount of the shortfall between a given year’s PILT payment and the actual cost of providing these essential governmental services. This is patently unfair and must not be allowed to continue. It is for this reason that PILT funding must be considered in an entirely different category than other activities, such as land acquisition, that represent what truly is discretionary federal spending. Even if you request $300 million for PILT in FY 2007 this would represent only about xx% of the amount that would be required to fully fund PILT. It would, however, represent a very positive recognition of the federal government’s moral and ethical responsibility. It would also be an important funding supplement to PILT counties across the country, many of which are among our nations poorest. Should your staff have any additional questions about PILT or if there is anything else we can do to assist you in making your decision over your funding recommendation for FY 2007, please contact us. Thank you for your attention to this urgent request.
cc: WCA counties
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