Bingaman: Senate Finance Committee Approves Plan to Provide Millions for New Mexico Counties

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Contact: Michael Wilder

U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman

703 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING, WASHINGTON, DC 20510

CONTACT JUDE McCARTIN, 202-224-1804

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, June 19, 2007

BINGAMAN: SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE APPROVES PLAN TO PROVIDE MILLIONS FOR NEW MEXICO COUNTIES

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today said he is very pleased that the Senate Finance Committee has approved an amendment to a key bill that will increase payments to New Mexico counties by tens of millions of dollars over the next five years. Bingaman is a member of the Finance Committee and helped write the amendment. U.S. Senator Pete Domenici is a supporter of the measure.

The measure takes two steps for New Mexico: it expands and extends the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act, increasing payments to New Mexico counties under the program next year from about $2.3 million to about $22 million. That program supports counties that rely economically on national forest lands. The bill also fully funds the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program, which compensates counties that have extensive federal land that cannot be a source of property taxes.

Bingaman, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, worked with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and other key Democratic members of the Senate to negotiate the proposal. The plan passed the Senate once as part of an emergency spending bill to fund the war, but it was not contained in the final bill. It passed the Senate Finance Committee today as part of much larger energy tax incentives legislation that Bingaman helped write.

“Counties throughout New Mexico rely very heavily on PILT and county payment funding to provide basic services to their residents. Under this proposal, New Mexico will gain millions of additional dollars,” Bingaman said.

“I am pleased that the Finance Committee has seen fit to include the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act in the energy tax package. This provision will increase payments for most New Mexico counties, providing funding for schools and roads that is more proportionate to the number of acres of federal land in the state,” Domenici said.

The proposal would provide about $2.8 billion through 2011 to fund counties with National Forest lands under the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act (commonly referred to as the “county payments” program). It is estimated that New Mexico would receive a total of nearly $100 million from 2007-2011 under the program. Currently, New Mexico receives about $2.3 million annually under the program, which will expire in October of this year if not reauthorized by Congress.

The proposal also ensures full-funding for PILT through 2012. Bingaman has sponsored legislation for several years that would make full funding for PILT mandatory. Full-funding for PILT would provide about a 35 percent increase in total funding for the program. New Mexico is the number one beneficiary of the program, with thirty-two New Mexico counties receiving a total of nearly $22.8 million in PILT payments this year.