Malcolm Wallop: “I support S. 445, the payment in lieu of taxes legislation. I am an advocate of and a cosponsor of this legislation. The…”

“I support S. 445, the payment in lieu of taxes legislation. I am an advocate of and a cosponsor of this legislation. The way to get rid of payments in lieu of taxes would be to treat the public lands States in the manner that all those that are not public lands States are treated, and return some of this land to State ownership. But that is another issue. The bill, if approved, would increase payments in lieu of taxes over a 5-year period and base the payments on the Consumer Price Index. I am not generally an advocate of indexing, but the problem that we in the public land States have is that the Federal Government is our biggest neighbor and landlord. We provide the Federal Government with the police services, the fire services, the maintenance services, the transportation services, highway services, and everything else to manage these lands. Were these lands in private ownership or were these lands in the ownership of the State, they would directly produce the income to the State that we now ask as a fair share of this payment in lieu of taxes. It is to compensate these States for the presence of a Government that other States, who will be opposing this, do not know about and cannot comprehend.”