An Energy Department working group is still grappling with recommended changes on management of the payments in lieu of taxes (PILT) program for communities around nuclear facilities, Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said Thursday.
During a hearing of the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, the secretary promised to personally brief Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) on the group’s findings, due out by the end of the month.
Because land held by the Energy Department cannot be taxed, the annual payments are meant to help compensate localities for loss of revenue that could go to government purposes such as roads and schools.
In fiscal 2018, Simpson requested the Government Accountability Office study the program. In its October 2019 report, the congressional auditor said DOE should provide better documentation and clearer criteria on how PILT money is handed out.
The GAO said the agency distributed $23 million in fiscal 2017 to communities near a dozen nuclear laboratory and cleanup sites. But 70% of that amount went to localities around two nuclear complexes: the Hanford Site in Washington state and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
“It’s been a pet peeve of mine,” Simpson said, because some localities receive so much PILT funding and others so little. Simpson’s eastern Idaho congressional district includes the area adjacent to DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory.
The GAO report noted very little of the Idaho National Laboratory’s 570,000 acres is eligible for the payments because it was not privately held when DOE assumed management.
The Idaho lawmaker said he is not out to take away others PILT payments. “I’m just trying to make a standard across the department.”
“We’re still working on it,” Brouillette said of the recommendations. “I understand your concerns very, very clearly,” he told Simpson.
