Welcome to NACo News Watch — the official media relations blog of the National Association of Counties. We observe and analyze media coverage of the nation's 3,068 counties and NACo so you don't have to.



Wednesday, February 19, 2014

States Aren’t the Only Ones Reforming Health Care
Innovative Hennepin Health getting noticed as a national model. 

Friday, January 17, 2014

Congress cuts funds for jailing undocumented criminals
Great coverage for NACo and counties in this USA Today article about Congress cutting the annual funding of the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), which reimburses  reimburses states and local governments for the cost of incarcerating undocumented immigrants. 

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

County services in jeopardy if Congress fails to fund PILT
NACo issued a press statement indicating that "America’s counties will have no option but to severely reduce or eliminate critical county services to the public if Congress fails to deliver funding for the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program in the FY2014 Omnibus spending bill."

The word is getting out across the country and on Capitol Hill. Below is an article in Environment & Energy Daily, a widely read publication in the nation's capital.  

Future of PILT in doubt after program funding is cut from omnibus bill By Scott Streater and Phil Taylor
Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Funding for a federal program that pays hundreds of millions of dollars a year to rural counties with large tracts of federal lands to offset losses in property tax revenue will not be included in the fiscal 2014 omnibus appropriations bill.

Instead, according to a summary of the bill released late yesterday, congressional appropriators are kicking the issue back to the authorizing committees in the Senate and House to see if they can find the roughly $400 million needed to fund the payments in lieu of taxes (PILT) program outside of discretionary budgets.

Colorado Sen. Mark Udall (D) offered another possible solution, filing a bill late yesterday that would permanently fund PILT payments to local governments through the Interior Department.

Since the PILT payments began in 1977, Interior has distributed $6.3 billion to states and territories to help nearly 2,000 counties fund critical services such as firefighting, law enforcement and public schools, as well as infrastructure improvement projects.

Local county governments plan on the annual payments and include them in their budget planning processes. Eliminating the program would be devastating to the mostly Western counties whose boundaries can be composed of more than half federal lands that cannot be taxed, said Ryan Yates, associate legislative director for the National Association of Counties in Washington, D.C.

"At this point in history, we've never been this far along in the fiscal budget year without some certainty on the PILT fund, so we're in a bit of quandary here," Yates said.

The PILT program has been a source of contention in recent years. Congress in 2008 approved a five-year extension of PILT payments, and in summer 2012 approved a one-year extension for fiscal 2013.

President Obama's fiscal 2014 budget included a request to Congress to approve another one-year extension.

The omnibus bill summary from the House Appropriations Committee states that the committee "has been provided assurances that PILT payments for fiscal year 2014 will be addressed expeditiously by the appropriate authorizing committees of jurisdiction in the House and Senate."

But Yates said that assurances from congressional leaders and staffers that they will make every effort to find the money to fund the program don't allay the fears of county leaders who depend on the payments.

"We've received plenty of assurances, but no funding yet for the counties," he said. "While we appreciate the assurances for continued funding, that doesn't provide salaries for our law enforcement officers, keep our jails open or provide health-related services."

Indeed, repeated efforts from top leaders in the Senate and House to convince the appropriations committees to fully fund the PILT program were unsuccessful.

Earlier yesterday, before the omnibus appropriations bill was released, Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) and 30 other members of Congress representing 21 states sent a letter to Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) asking that they include full funding of the PILT program in the omnibus bill.

"Counties with federal land in their jurisdictions provide vital services on those lands, such as solid waste management, search and rescue and emergency medical services. Yet, these same counties are grossly disadvantaged in their ability to fund these services because of the high presence of federally owned lands," the three-paragraph letter said. "In some counties, 90 percent or more of the land is federally owned and is neither taxable nor productive. The PILT program helps offset the loss of these important revenues and fulfill the federal government's obligation to local communities with large amounts of federal land."

A different course of action

One potential solution is Udall's bill, filed yesterday just hours before the omnibus appropriations bill.
Fellow Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet (D) is co-sponsoring the bill.

Udall said his bill is designed to ensure that the PILT program is not subjected to the annual uncertainty and ongoing congressional bickering over the federal budgetary process.

The PILT payments last year were cut slightly due to budget sequestration, and Congress has yet to fund this year's payments.

"The PILT program is essential for rural communities and counties near Colorado's public lands," Udall said in a statement. "My legislation ensures that our communities can reliably support their police departments, firefighters, schools and other services that help maintain public safety and our quality of life. This smart investment will help create jobs and promote economic growth in counties across Colorado."

Udall's bill would amend Chapter 69, Title 31 of the U.S. Code to strike references to the earlier PILT program extensions for fiscal 2008 through 2013 and replace them with "fiscal year," ensuring the program is automatically funded each year.

Such an effort is sure to have broad bipartisan support in the West.

Nearly four dozen House lawmakers from both parties in November sent a letter to Budget Committee leaders and ranking members in the House and Senate urging them to provide full funding to the PILT program (E&E Daily, Nov. 22, 2013).
And last month, the Western Governors' Association and the National Association of Counties sent a letter to budget appropriators asking them to include about $400 million in payments in lieu of taxes in their 2014 spending bill.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Federal Budget Deal Delays Hospital Cuts -- For Now

NACo is quoted in this Governing article about how the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to change state Medicaid expansion from obligatory to optional is affecting urban hospitals.  

“The way it was done, it gives kind of a breather, but then it increases the steepness of the cliff,” said Paul Beddoe, the associate legislative director for health policy at the National Association of Counties.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Full PILT funding sought

This article from the Ruidso News in Lincoln County, N.M. mentions NACo advocacy effort to secure full PILT funding for 2014.


"The National Association of Counties sent out a legislative action alert on the issue and suggested letters be sent to legislative delegates. The county's resolution called for swift passage of a bill to extend the mandatory PILT funding for Fiscal Year 2014 to previous levels or higher.

"The NACo letter to leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committee states that the PILT program provides critical funding to nearly 1,900 counties in 49 states and three United States territories. As you know, the recently adopted budget resolution included a deficit neutral reserve fund placeholder for PILT. In view of the bipartisan acknowledgement, the NACo letter asks for full funding."




Editorial: Connecting recreation, health

The Daily Reflector, which covers Greenville, Pitt County, and eastern North Carolina, mentioned Pitt County winning a 2013 NACo Achievement Award in an editorial. 
 
"The normal time for updating the parks plan came when work was progressing on the Pitt County District Park (renamed the Alice F. Keene District Park), which provides multiple recreational fields and a playground area on County Home Road. The park was instrumental in the county being recognized last year by the National Association of Counties, which awarded its 2013 Achievement Award in the category of Parks and Recreation."






Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Counties could lose millions if appropriators don’t hurry after Ryan-Murray budget deal
Great coverage for the PILT program in the Washington Post. The PILT program was created in 1976 to offset costs incurred by counties for services provided to federal employees and families, the public and to the users of public lands. These include education, solid waste disposal, law enforcement, search and rescue, health care, environmental compliance, fire fighting, parks and recreation and other important community services. NACo is the only national organization that lobbies Congress on the PILT program.   
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