[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 12 (Wednesday, January 19, 2022)]
[House]
[Page H230]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PIKE COUNTY DESERVES A LARGER PILT PAYMENT
(Mr. RYAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. RYAN. Madam Speaker, payments in lieu of taxes, or PILTs, are
Federal payments to local governments to help offset losses in property
taxes due to the presence of nontaxable Federal lands within their
boundaries.
Through my role on the Energy and Water Development, and Related
Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, I have gotten to know the good
people of Pike County, Ohio, where the Department of Energy owns 3,700
acres of land where a uranium enrichment plant once operated. And
wouldn't you know it, Pike County has one of the highest cancer rates
in the State of Ohio.
Yet, their PILT payment is a paltry $47,000 a year. These are the
people who enriched the uranium during the Cold War; they live in
southern Ohio where corporations have gone in, extracted resources, and
taken the profits out, and now we need to help this community get the
kind of payment that they need. For all the radiation, all the
sacrifice that they have made and endured over the years, it is long
past time that the Federal Government increased the PILT payment for
Pike County, Ohio.
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