Sometimes it only takes a few strident voices of opposition to derail a worthy project. The support of the silent majority is never heard. One of our goals is to give a voice to that silent majority, to show our legislators the breadth and depth of community support for new schools. So, we’d ask everyone to register as an “Our Schools, Their Future” supporter by clicking on the registration link below.
I think location and higher property taxes will stop the new school from being built.
Thanks Greg.
Actually, if property taxes could even figure into the equation in a significant enough way, an effort like this would be unnecessary.
What we are up against is the lack of the ability to tax, so our best shot is for federal involvement for this district, which can't tax enough to support a school bond — because of the the federal land ownership.
To get federal support, we have the encouragement of our representatives in Congress, but they need to see community unity on the matter.
The only question important at this point is, Do we want a new school or not?
What a sad commentary if the location selected by the
duly-elected school board (after months and months of oppportunity
for public commentary) is the reason the community forces GCD
students to continue to languish in ancient, substandard
facilities. I can't believe the buildings I attended over 30 years
ago (which were old then…) are still in use. Put the territorial
attitudes aside, work together with ALL the folks the district
serves and get that school built.
It’s time to meet with county commissioners who’s counties are in the School District’s area of operation and ask what they are doing with the annual Pay In Lieu of Taxes (PILT) monies from the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Fiscal Year 2010 PILT Payments:
Douglas County: $140.286.00
Grant County: $673,498.00
Lincoln County: $209,843.00
Okanogan County: $2,000,531.00
"Payments in Lieu of Taxes" (or PILT) are Federal payments to local governments that help offset losses in property taxes due to nontaxable Federal lands within their boundaries. The law that implements the payments is Public Law 94-565, dated October 20, 1976. This law was rewritten and amended by Public Law 97-258 on September 13, 1982 and codified at Chapter 69, Title 31 of the United States Code. The Law recognizes that the inability of local governments to collect property taxes on Federally-owned land can create a financial impact.
PILT payments help local governments carry out such vital services as firefighting and police protection, construction of public schools and roads, and search-and-rescue operations. The payments are made annually for tax-exempt Federal lands administered by the BLM, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (all agencies of the Interior Department), the U.S. Forest service (part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture), and for Federal water projects and some military installations. PILT payments are one of the ways that the Federal government can fulfill its role of being a good neighbor to local communities."
PILT, evidently, (and wrongly) does not apply to the Grand Coulee Dam project, Bob. Changing the law so it does might be an answer to the ongoing problem, though. Yes, that's been thought of, annually.
Of course, then we'd have to get around the answer to your question, which is that counties keep PILT money for themselves, it seems. Why? Because they can.
That doesn't mean the county commissioners shouldn't be involved though, they should. If I recall correctly, visiting each of the four commissions was one of the first things Dennis Carlson, the new superintendent, did after he was hired.
These posts raise several interesting questions. If the Bureau of Reclamation had to pay real property taxes for the Grand Coulee project, like I pay for my private business, what would they be? How much would they generate for local schools? How much would they reduce the property tax costs for area residents and businesses?
Valuing the Grand Coulee Dam at a conservative current market value $750 Million, the Dept of Interior would pay $9.4 Million a year in property taxes it were a private business in Grant County. Of that, $3.3 Million would go to local schools for the maintenance and operations levy. To generate the same levy income for the schools, we'd see the school tax rate drop from $4.3 per $1,000 to only $1.09.
Scott: Why does PILT not apply to the dam project? Would Rep. McMorris-Rogers and Hastings be willing to write legislation that would end this exclusion and allow the district to begin receiving PILT monies? Someone needs to ask them…
That's a good question, Bob. And I'm not an expert on this. But from what I gathered at various meetings (and one in particular with the person in charge of USBR real estate in this region) the PILT legislation applies to land leases, and none of this is leased.
At one time I also understood there was some exploration into the idea of amending that PILT law, but I don't know where that stands right now.
PILT is an interesting concept. As I understand it, congress initiated PILT payments to counties to reimburse the counties for the federal government's burden on county services like road maintenance, fire and police protection, and adminstrative services the counties provided to the federal properties. Since there is such a variation in county structures within the country, PILT funds were distributed without strings and could be applied as the county commissioners directed. PILT funds are now used for funding lots of things within counties that go far beyond the original intent of the law.
Our school district does recieve federal dollars through the Impact Aid provisions of federal law. Under this law, the district receives dollars for every student that resides on federally owned or trust land. Currently, Impact Aid funds are coming in 4 years late so this means we are now receiving dollars based on how many and where students lived 4 years ago. We are budgeted to receive $819,595 this year in Impact Aid (which is almost equal to our local levy of $806,000).
I hope this helps clarify the PILT question. The district does receive PILT dollars only we call it Impact Aid.
Thanks, Dennis, for the good info.
So just to check my understanding, the funds the district gets do not come via the PILT law, but by the Impact Aid law?