European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 30, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Doily Magazine monday May 30, 1977 the stars and stripes Page 13 putting the tax bite on Uncle Sam by Mary Marzano associated press he Man who owns the biggest chunk of land in the United states in t paying property  owns millions of acres from Timber Rich mountains to grazing lands. He puts High Rise office buildings in our biggest cities and never flinches Over soaring tax rates. His name is Uncle  Federal government owns 762 Mil lion of the nation s 2.3 billion acres or about one third of the Gross area. None of Uncle Sam s caretakers like the folks at the Bureau of land management the National Park service and the Fores service is willing to guess what All that land is Worth. Nor Are they willing to guess How much is lost to local government in property taxes each year. But a few disgruntled officials on the state and county level have done some figuring and some congressional moves May Force Uncle Sam to Ante of at least on a broader scale than be has in the past. In an admitted bit of Campaign grand standing last fall a Utah county commissioner assessed the Federal government$2.92 million in property taxes threatening to put the 3.4 million acres of federally owned land some 85 per cent of the total acreage of his county on the auction lock if the taxes weren t paid. The commissioner Calvin Black of Sanjuan county woo lost his bid for the re publican congressional nomination admitted his tax Bill to Uncle Sam was a dramatization and he was t really expect ing payment but he argued that Large tracts of Federal land in the Western state make the Little More than exploited col onies of the Federal  bulk of federally owned land is in the Western states. Although Many acre were homesteaded by pioneers the . Government which at one time owned four fifths of the nation s property retained much of the land won or Purchase from european Powers and taken from the indians. Westerners Are left chafing Over having to pay for Law enforcement fire fighting Road maintenance Rescue emergency and other service son untaxed Federal land within their counties while they say easterners remain unaware of the problem. What would be the sense of taxing Feder ally owned lands an official in Alabama s Revenue department asked. The taxpayer would end up footing the Bill even if Public land were taxed he said. My 3.4 per cent of Alabama s land i federally owned. But Federal land makes up More than half of five Western stat Sand from about 30 to 50 per cent of the remaining seven Western states. . Ownership of the dozen Wester states in descending order is Alaska 96.4 per cent Nevada 86.6 Utah 66.1 Idaho,63 7 Oregon. 52.6 Wyoming. 47.8 califor Nia 45.2 Arizona. 42.8 Colorado 36.1new Mexico 33.6 Montana 29.7 Washington 29.5.except for Utah Idaho and new Mexico the per capita tax rate for All these state ranks them in the top half of the nation. The per capita taxes in California Are second Only to new York. Alaska is fourth and Nevada sixth. In Colorado where Uncle Sam owns 24.1million acres the legislature put a special committee to work on the problem. It concluded that if Federal ownership of Large amounts of land is in the National interest then the economic Burden should not be borne by local government and taxpayers alone but by All the people. Fairness and equity deem that the Burden be  said the committee. Ernest Newton of the Nevada taxpayer association suggests that the Federal land be turned Over to private interests. Then he says the land could be assessed for tax purposes on the basis of its productive capacity or actual production resulting in a minimum of $2.6 million annually in new Revenue. Not everyone is so eager to wrench land from the government. You could fit Connecticut new Hampshire Del Kwiw Vomm this Federal office building in new York occupies land that normally would generate considerable tax income for City. Uncle Sam owns millions of acres states want him to pay property tax. Aware Rhode Island and All of Hawaii s 122 islands into the one third of Washington state owned by Uncle Sam but state officials say residents would t have it any other Way. For washingtonians officials say Public ownership has meant preservation of wilderness areas conservation of vast Forest acreages and virtually unlimited recreational  Washington voters Are increasingly negative about special tax levies on their properly to pay for schools and two of the state s counties had to sell Bonds in 1975 Topay for routine maintenance and opera  one of them. Ferry county with 3.600 persons the Colville National Forest an Colville Indian reservation kept All but 14 per cent of the land off the tax  have the unholy distinction of having the highest percentage tax per capita in the stale moaned the county  the reservation and Forest spill Over into neighbouring Okanogan county. 73per cell untaxed. Thai county devised the so called Okanogan  a plan for fed eral payments in lieu of taxes. The proposal presented to the Senate last year failed to overcome resistance from midwestern and Eastern states that would t Benefit. Another formula engineered by  Evans d-colo., carried lower Bene fits but was broadened to Aid 39 slates. Although the White House opposed it on the basis of its estimated j100 million annual Cost pre election pressure fro Western republicans moved president Ford to sign the measure into Law. Another in a series of Laws the con Gress has adopted to Send Home portion of fees collected for Timber cutting Mineral development and grazing was toe Bureau of land management organic act signed into Law oct. 21,1976. Among other things it increases to 50per cell the 37 j per cent paid to stole governments for Mineral leasing income. I also emphasizes that the bulk of those pay ments should go to local governments suf Fering because of Federal ownership. In 1975. The Federal government collected $750 million from its land operations and Send $250 million Back to state an local governments. This year total pay out could be $375 million officials  still Are possible stumbling blocks in administering the in lieu of taxes Money first of All Congress has to appropriate the Money and secondly the Interior department has quite a bit of leeway in How the local allotments Are  example Washington s Okanogan county can get 75 cents an acre minus what it s collecting in other payments such As Forest service receipts and not to exceed a sliding per capita limit. Or the county can get a Flat 10 cents an  official said it could vary from $320, 000 to about $167,000 in lieu Money de pending on Forest income. Under the Okanogan Bill the county would have received in excess of $600,000. Not All categories of Federal lands would be counted but the Law includes National Parks and wilderness areas Federal reservoirs National forests and blk lands. This adds up to 374 million acres half the Federal acreage of 760 million according to the Public land review  Law does not apply to Alaska which already is receiving millions of dollars unshared Revenue for Mineral production and lease rentals on Federal land. Even local officials not surrounded by millions of federally owned acre Are beginning to Wake up to Uncle Sam s free ride. Both Indiana and Maryland where Federal ownership is 2 to 3 per cell. Are study ing who owns the land in their stale Indiana plans to prepare legislation pro Viding for a Token property tax payment Back to county governments. 1 rep. Jack Brooks. O-tex., opposed Thein lieu payment Bill. Less than 2 per cell of his state s 176 million acres is federally owned. But 800,000 of the 900.000 acres owned by the slate Are in far West Texas where the counties of Elpaso Brewster and Culbertson Are resisting any More stale act is Lions because of the already depleted tax  at the other end of the spectrum a spokesman for All of Rhode Island depart ment of Community affairs acknowledged that if Uncle Sam would pay taxes on his some 7,000 acres there the lax would drop by at least a few dollars All around he