Idaho
Idaho lawmakers hire firm to appraise federal public lands
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BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho lawmakers have employed a Utah firm to appraise federal lands in Idaho to find out how a lot cash lawmakers say the federal authorities must be paying the state if the lands had been privately owned and topic to property taxes.
Republican Sen. Steve Vick and Republican Rep. Sage Dixon, co-chairmen of the Legislature’s Committee on Federalism, signed the $250,000 cope with Aeon AI final month. The Federalism Committee offers with state sovereignty points.
Idaho is about 63% federal public land, however native governments can’t acquire property tax on that land. A federal program known as PILT, or cost in lieu of taxes, goals to offset the lack of these taxes.
Some Idaho lawmakers say the state ought to get greater than it has traditionally acquired, and outcomes from the Aeon AI appraisal might bolster that argument.
U.S. lawmakers in each events have at instances taken difficulty with the PILT program and its funds, notably Western states similar to Idaho containing vital federal lands.
The funds are made yearly by the Inside Division and its businesses, together with the Bureau of Land Administration. The funds additionally cowl federal lands administered by the U.S. Forest Service and different businesses.
Idaho acquired $34.5 million final 12 months. This 12 months’s cost hasn’t been finalized.