Jerry Moran: “We love our colleagues who represent the Western States, but many of them, particularly on the other side, don't seem to…”

“We love our colleagues who represent the Western States, but many of them, particularly on the other side, don't seem to show much love for the Federal Government they represent. The payment in lieu of taxes program was created to compensate counties for lost taxes, since Federal lands don't pay taxes. That's fair. Western States with lots of Federal lands get most of the payments. That's fair. But while the counties don't get any taxes from Federal lands, they don't have to provide services on those lands either. In fact the opposite occurs. The national parks, wildlife refuges, national forests and BLM lands and the staffs of all these provide very valuable services and substantial revenue and jobs to the western counties, and the public lands provide ecosystems that are worth billions. Without clean water and open space, imagine. You wouldn't have the communities, the agriculture, that we seem to take for granted. In fact, the States get fully half the mineral receipts that come from the coal, oil and gas that is owned by the Federal taxpayer.”