Twenty elected officials from Arizona, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Minnesota made contact with 200 congressional offices over the two-day 2002 PILT Fly-In, April 25-26.

NACo is urging Congress to give counties $220 million for PILT (Payments-in-lieu-of-taxes) in the FY02 budget, or at least to keep funding at last year’s $200 million. The county officials also asked members to support S. 454, introduced by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), which provides full and permanent funding for this critical program for counties with tax-exempt federal land.

As the county officials made their visits on Capitol Hill, letters supporting increases for PILT circulated among both House and Senate members.

Rep. George Radanovich (R-Calif.), chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus, sent a letter signed by 22 House members to Interior Appropriations Chairman Joe Skeen (R-N.M.) asking his committee to fund PILT at $240 million in FY02, and to increase that level by $40 million a year until the program is fully funded.

Full funding for PILT is also included in H.R. 701, the Conservation and Reinvestment Act (CARA), sponsored by Rep. James Hansen (R-Utah), chairman of the House Resources Committee. Supported by a broad coalition of conservation organizations as well as many state and local governments, CARA faced stiff opposition from conservative Western senators last year. While historically strong supporters of PILT, these Western lawmakers oppose setting aside large amounts of money for federal land acquisition, a sentiment shared by many members of NACo’s Public Lands Steering Committee.

In the Senate, Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.) also organized a letter campaign targeted at key Senate appropriators requesting $220 million in FY02 for the program. That amount would help put Congress on track to reach full funding levels by 2006.

In the letter to Sens. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) and Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), chairman and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, Thomas wrote, “These funds are critical to the budgets of local governments that provide many valuable services such as search and rescue, law enforcement, sanitation and road maintenance.

“Given the continued decline of resource extraction activities, rural counties have lost much of their ability to provide basic public services. Although increased tourism has supplied some economic benefits, these gains are insufficient to meet the growing demands.”

Fifteen senators joined Thomas in signing the letter.