The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) plans in September to release a report on the Energy Department’s payment in lieu of taxes (PILT) to communities surrounding its national laboratories and cleanup sites.
The report will analyze the differences in PILT payments across sites and how have they varied over time, according to the GAO.
The GAO study will also consider to what extent these payments meet PILT goals of compensating localities for land held by the federal government since the days of the Manhattan Project and the Cold War. Payments in lieu of taxes are meant to compensate local governments for property that cannot be taxed or developed for new business.
Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) alluded to the report during comments Tuesday in the House Appropriations Committee markup of the fiscal 2020 energy and water development funding bill.
“There are 17 national laboratories and all of them operate differently as far as PILT payments,” Simpson said. For example, the Idaho National Laboratory takes up 890 square miles, but there is no assurance that communities near the large site will get large payments, he said.
Simpson has previously criticized DOE over PILT payments, saying the agency’s criteria is not transparent and individual site payments can range from a few thousand dollars to more than $6 million.
“It is up to the site manager whether they want to participate in the PILT payment or not,” so if you have a “friendly one” then the localities get more funding, Simpson said.
Furthermore, any money the Energy Department pays out for PILT is siphoned away from funds that would otherwise be devoted to environmental remediation, Simpson said.
“We either do the same and uniform across the complex, or we don’t do it at all,” Simpson said. He added he is not opposed to PILT, because the extra personnel and facilities connected with DOE projects can strain local schools, utilities, and roadways.
