PILT money key to rural Colorado

This is a guest editorial by Sen. Ken Salazar, who serves on the Senate finance, agriculture, energy and natural resources, ethics, and aging committees. He was elected in 2004 and has recently been nominated by the Obama administration to serve as Secretary of Interior.

In the last eight years, between federal money grabs and ignoring Western voices about issues that affect our communities, Washington has broken its share of promises.

It seems that for the White House, the rural America where I grew up has been a forgotten America.

But last week Western communities won a big victory in Washington. After four years of work in the U.S. Senate, I was proud to help pass a new law requiring the federal government to pay its fair share to counties that have federal land in their jurisdictions.

This new law is a breakthrough for Colorado counties that, year after year, have been shortchanged by the federal government on money that supports basic services in rural areas.

Fifty-seven of Colorado’s 64 counties are entitled to payment from the federal government for public land within their local jurisdictions that cannot be taxed. The money that come to Colorado communities through this program, called the payment in lieu of taxes program, helps pay for roads, emergency responders and other essential services.

Many Colorado counties also receive money through the Secure Rural Schools program, originally established in 1908 to allow local communities to share in the revenue from timber sales on public land.

PILT and Secure Rural Schools not only help offset tax revenue that can’t be collected from public land; they also defray expenses associated with use of public land, such as extra wear and tear on roads and carrying out search and rescue operations.

County commissioners in Colorado will tell you just how important these programs are for rural communities. They will also tell you that when the administration cuts the budget for these programs, as it has consistently done over the last eight years, counties must lay off employees, halt road projects, or make cuts to school budgets.

Every year I have been in the U.S. Senate, I have fought against the president’s proposed cuts to PILT and Secure Rural Schools program. Every year, I have pushed to establish a more permanent way to fund these two initiatives, so Washington cannot back out of its responsibilities.

Finally, last week, we passed a law that will fully fund PILT through 2012, with a retroactive payment for 2008. It will also provide a 200 percent increase to Secure Rural Schools payments to Western communities to help pay for education.

This money to rural counties could not come at a better time. With the economy slumping, jobs disappearing and county budgets in crisis, local communities will be able to count on the federal government paying its fair share of these two programs.

For communities across Colorado, the payments will make a big difference. Chaffee County will receive more than $400,000 in “make-up” payments to cover what the federal government withheld in 2008, bringing the total PILT payment for the year to more than $1.1 million.

Conejos County, in my native San Luis Valley, will receive an additional $350,000. In a rural county, this added money can go a long way.

By funding PILT and Secure Rural Schools through 2012, the new law gives counties the certainty they need to budget for coming years. They will have a buffer from the shifting winds of annual budgets in Washington.

The new PILT and Secure Rural Schools law is a victory for Western communities and, I hope, a first step toward restoring Washington’s commitment to rural America and the West. We need a White House that will listen to the wisdom of Western communities, uphold its promises, respect our water compacts, and promote sensible agricultural, energy and public land policies.

I am hopeful we will soon turn the page on the last eight years. Requiring the federal government to meet its obligations to our counties is a good place to start.