Greenwire article, “‘Highly unusual’ push aims to transfer income, not ownership”
Arizona received nearly $40 million in federal payments in fiscal 2018 to offset the Copper State’s more than 28 million acres of non-taxable public lands — but for critics like state Rep. Mark Finchem (R), that isn’t nearly enough.
Instead, Finchem is leading a push to establish a new state Department of Public Land Management that would become the first collection point for fees from all land-use agreements such as grazing fees and rights-of-way grants.
“This is one solution to see to it that PILT [payments in lieu of taxes] is reset so the state of Arizona might take its portion — depending on the agreement that’s negotiated with the Department of the Interior — and then send whatever the residual is on to the secretary of the Interior,” Finchem, chairman of the state House Federal Relations Committee, explained at a hearing on his bill, H.B. 2547, earlier this month.”
Perhaps oddly, I didn’t see mention of $ from federal leases that already go back to the States such as “New Mexico will reap about $467 million from the Wednesday and Thursday sale, because 48 percent of the revenue from such lease auctions goes to the state where the oil and gas activity occurs. The rest goes to the U.S. Treasury.” https://www.abqjournal.com/1218213/latest-sale-of-nm-oil-leases-sets-national-record.html
I’m not sure it’s that new an idea, just applying the oil and gas leasing concept to other leases and permits. For example, all ski area $ apparently go to DC. I think it’s logical to ask “why some things and not others?”
I wonder what the states think about the rates the federal government charges for land uses like grazing.