OPINION/COMMENTARY

U.S. House Resources Committee holds hearing on impacts of federal land ownership on local communities

Wednesday, the U.S. House Resources Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health held a hearing on the "Impacts of Federal Land Ownership on Communities and Local Governments." The federal government owns approximately 671 million acres of land in the United States, on which it pays no property tax. Local communities surrounded by federal lands cannot collect taxes on it, cannot sell, or lease any of the acreage to generate revenue, so Congress has offset this impact with laws such as Payments in Lieu of Taxes Act of 1976 (PILT) and others. However, the funds from these bills are not equal to the loss of tax revenue. Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) noted that half of his district is federally owned, contains nine national forests, and four Bureau of Land Management (BLM) districts. Between 2000 and 2004, according to Walden, BLM acquired 300,000 additional acres, while the U.S. Forest Service acquired 500,000 acres of additional land. With maintenance backlogs of $15 billion, committee members asked federal land managers why their agencies kept acquiring more land....

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