Pat Ryan: “Payments in lieu of taxes, or PILTs, are Federal payments to local governments to help offset losses in property taxes…”

“Payments in lieu of taxes, or PILTs, are Federal payments to local governments to help offset losses in property taxes due to the presence of nontaxable Federal lands within their boundaries. Through my role on the Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, I have gotten to know the good people of Pike County, Ohio, where the Department of Energy owns 3,700 acres of land where a uranium enrichment plant once operated. And wouldn't you know it, Pike County has one of the highest cancer rates in the State of Ohio. Yet, their PILT payment is a paltry $47,000 a year. These are the people who enriched the uranium during the Cold War; they live in southern Ohio where corporations have gone in, extracted resources, and taken the profits out, and now we need to help this community get the kind of payment that they need. For all the radiation, all the sacrifice that they have made and endured over the years, it is long past time that the Federal Government increased the PILT payment for Pike County, Ohio. ____________________”