Pete Domenici: “Let me just make sure that the Senate understands the size of the public domain in counties like Taos. Taos County has…”

“Let me just make sure that the Senate understands the size of the public domain in counties like Taos. Taos County has 740,000 acres of public land. One might even have picked a different county in New Mexico and said, 'How about Catron County?' 2.8 million acres of Catron County are owned by the Federal Government. They will get something like, well, I do not have the exact dollar number, but significantly more obviously than Taos, which is a very poor county, not rich, because the Federal Government owns all the land, very poor, very poor services, very little money for the county Government. So, obviously, I am here as a cosponsor of Senator Hatfield's legislation. I was one of the original Senators on the floor when we passed PILT. The distinguished Senator from Wyoming, Senator Hansen, was on the floor when this PILT amendment was passed here and retained in conference and we started down a path of fairness. The Federal Government owns huge portions of our respective counties' lands in a State like New Mexico, in a State like Oregon, in a State like Colorado, and certainly in a State like Nevada.”