PILT vs. Economic Self-Reliance and Education Equality

Wrongheaded to want to responsibly utilize abundant resources to adequately fund education and secure economic self-reliance of state and local communities?

That's what Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar seems to think about western states' efforts to secure local control of land access, land use and land ownership.

The federal government is $16 trillion in debt, with more than $60 trillion in accrued promises to pay Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits (unfunded obligations) for which they have no money, and yet is still OVERSPENDING at the rate of $1.5 trillion per year ($5 trillion per year deficit if you include the obligations for these entitlements).  That's wrongheaded!

Salt Lake Tribune, June 21, 2012 - "Rural Utah communities this year will get a share of $36 million from the federal government in an attempt to offset the large swaths of public lands that eat up their tax base."


While pleased that the federal funds are still flowing, some Utah leaders say they’re gearing up for the years to come when that revenue source may dry up.

"We’re already starting to prepare for what would be a tough budget situation if that were to happen — restructure our budget and financing to try and weather that if that takes place," said Kane County Commission Chairman Jim Matson, who fears budget cuts in Washington will slash rural aid.

Matson, like fellow rural commissioners, backs a plan by state officials to force the federal government to hand over public lands to state control, allowing them to develop some areas and boost revenue.

Salazar, mentioning Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, disagreed with Beehive State officials’ argument that the federal government should hand over public lands, noting that the state benefits greatly from the tourism, recreation, and oil and gas industries.

"The fact is that the lands in Utah, whether it’s Zion National Park or Arches or all of the oil and natural-gas development or mineral developments that take place, contributes in huge ways to the economy of the state of Utah," Salazar said. "So I think they’re just wrongheaded in their criticism."

Bishop, who’s working with Western colleagues to sustain PILT, chided Salazar and said that with 65 percent of Utah’s land controlled or managed by the federal government, tax revenue is hard to come by.

"This could be solved if the federal government would relinquish control over some of its 660 million acres of land," Bishop said. "Apparently wanting to fund public education and give children greater educational opportunities is ‘wrongheaded’ as Secretary Salazar put it."