Testimony of

The Honorable Don Davis

Commissioner

Rio Blanco County, Colorado

on behalf of

The National Association of Counties

&

Colorado Counties, Inc.

before the

Subcommittee

on

Forests & Forest Health

of the

Committee on Resources

United States House of Representatives

July 24, 2003

Chairman McInnis and distinguished subcommittee members, it is an honor to appear before you to present this testimony in support of H.R. 1005. My name is Don Davis, and I am a County Commissioner from Rio Blanco County, Colorado. I serve as Chairman of the Public Lands Steering Committee of Colorado Counties, Inc. (CCI) and as President of the Western Interstate Region of the National Association of Counties (NACo).

H.R. 1005, the PILT and Refuge Revenue Sharing Permanent Funding Act, represents a bi-partisan effort to provide an ongoing secure source of funding. This legislation, introduced in the House by Chairman McInnis, would permanently fund these two programs so critical to public lands counties. It is landmark legislation and should be enacted without delay.

Counties are the general purpose local government that must provide public services both for the federal employees and their families and for the users of federal lands. These local services include law enforcement, search and rescue, fire fighting, health care, solid waste disposal, road and bridge maintenance, etc.

In 1976, Congress enacted, and President Ford signed, the Payments in Lieu of Taxes Act. Under the 1976 PILT formula, total payments nationwide averaged about $100 million annually, depending upon the level established each year in the appropriation process. There was no allowance for inflation.

In 1994 Congress amended the PILT formula, at the request of the National Association of Counties, to recognize inflationary costs. Unfortunately, in the intervening eight years, no presidential budget has requested, nor has any Congress yet appropriated, the amount authorized under the revised formula.

NACo and CCI wish to go on record to applaud the members of the House of Representatives for requesting a historic $225 million for PILT in the FY 2004 Interior Appropriation bill passed just a few days ago. We thank you for your strong support.

However, though we are grateful for any increased appropriation, we view incremental increases as a stop-gap measure. PILT should not be seen as just another spending program in the Bureau of Land Management and it should not have to compete with worthwhile conservation programs within the Interior and related agencies appropriation bill.

In Colorado, 56 out of 63 counties contain federal lands. There are a total of 23.6 million "entitlement" acres of federal lands in Colorado, with annual PILT payment in 2002 of approximately $17.6 million. This works out to about seventy-four cents per acre.

However, in Rio Blanco County we have 1.5 million acres of federal land and a PILT payment of $272,412, or about eighteen cents per acre. In Hinsdale County in the south western part of the state, the situation is even worse. With 676,515 acres of federal land their PILT payment was only $70,770, about ten cents per acre.

The 676,515 acres of public lands in Hinsdale County represent 95% of the county. There are only about 37,000 acres of private land. 305 miles of the 326 miles of county roads are located on federal lands. In summer months, the population of Hinsdale County swells as much as a twenty-fold. The influx of recreation seeking visitors creates extreme law enforcement challenges which carry commensurate costs. Local property taxes for the 37,000 acres of private lands averaged $9.91 per acre, compared to the ten cents per acre averaged for the PILT payment.

The National Association of Counties also supports permanently funding the Refuge Revenue Sharing program through H.R. 1005. Federal wildlife refuge acreage is not automatically PILT entitlement acreage. In fact, if it was acquired by the Fish & Wildlife Service from private owners, it is not covered by PILT. The Refuge Revenue Sharing program is how local governments are compensated for this special category of federally owned tax-exempt land. This program is particularly important in eastern states.

Thank you for this opportunity to testify,