Originally Posted by rockinbbar
Originally Posted by BuzzH
Why do you find it appropriate for PILT to pay nearly 8.5 times more than a private citizen for the same exact assett?

Once again, you lie. Why are you such a liar to support your socialistic politics?

It's really very basic knowledge that PILT is a small fraction of income to local govt vs actual property taxes. I know this because I've been involved at a local level where most of the county is BLM or Forest Circus land.

Why lie about it?

People above your pay grade seem to disagree with you as well.

https://www.risch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2021/4/western-senators-introduce-more-pilt-act

Western Senators Introduce MORE PILT Act
April 1, 2021

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Jim Risch and Mike Crapo (both R-Idaho) joined U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) in introducing the Making Obligations Right by Enlarging Payments in Lieu of Taxes Act, or MORE PILT Act. This bill would direct the Secretary of Interior to conduct a study on federal lands eligible for PILT payments to determine the actual property value of the land and the foregone property tax revenues that counties would have otherwise received.

“Every single county in Idaho relies on the PILT program to fund critical county services and compensate for the tax base lost to federal lands,” said Risch. “Unfortunately, these payments do not begin to make up for the actual revenue loss rural communities sustain. This legislation is a critical step to ensuring counties are made whole.”

“PILT payments are critical to rural Idaho counties that rely on the funds for essential services like roads and law enforcement,” said Crapo. “The MORE PILT Act would better reflect the value of land in Idaho owned by the federal government, in turn meeting the ongoing needs of those counties. The pandemic has stretched local budgets even thinner, and continued improvement on the PILT program will help these areas obtain a more sustainable funding stream.”

“Without a property tax base, and with woefully inadequate PILT payments, Western states and communities struggle to fund their schools, infrastructure, and vital community services,” said Lee. “This bill will help ensure that PILT payments more accurately reflect the lands’ value, so that the citizens of our public lands states have the means they need to both survive and thrive.”

Background: States, counties, and local governments are not able to collect property taxes on public lands in their jurisdictions. The Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program was established in 1977 to provide funding to offset the absence of property tax revenue. PILT payments have historically been a small fraction of what local governments would otherwise generate through property taxes, leaving rural communities in Western states with limited funds for essential infrastructure and services.
You and I have severely differing opinions on this matter.

1 There is good reason the COTUS prohibits local .gov taxing the fed.

2. Idaho's Reps can shove this bill up their ass. Fiscal responsibility is not gained by increasing obligations onto the Fed.

3 Local .gov entities need to learn to live on the budgets they are given, rather than screaming for ever increasing funds to blow in frivolous manners.

4 Collecting money at the Fed level and then redistributing it to local governments only serves to employ more Fed administrstors, increase the size of Fed beauracracy, waste 90 cents of every dollar returned as administrative costs, and give the Feds more control over local governments.

I fully supported Idaho's Sec of Education a few years ago when she told the Fed to pound sand, keep their funds, and keep their fingers out of our schools.

Unfortunately the liberals of the state raised a schitt storm over how she was robbing our youth of their education. And the battle was eventually lost

But I see the counties of any state becoming dependent upon the fed to sustain programs in the same light that I see schools which are dependent upon fed money.

We are better off without it. Learn to live within your budget.

People who choose to brew up their own storms bitch loudest about the rain.