A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION, Urging the members of South Dakota's congressional delegation to sponsor and support an amendment to the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) Act.

WHEREAS, the PILT Act was enacted in October 1976 and established annual payments in lieu of taxes (PILT) to local governments to offset the losses in property taxes due to untaxable federal lands within the local government boundaries; and

WHEREAS, the PILT Act further recognized the significant support that local governments provide to national lands, particularly in the areas of safety, and providing and maintaining road systems allowing public access; and

WHEREAS, the PILT Act focuses primarily on large tracts of federal land including those in the national park system, the national forests, and lands under the Bureau of Land Management; and

WHEREAS, the United States recognizes the vital national importance of preserving wetlands and over the years has acquired hundreds of thousands of acres through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to ensure their preservation; and

WHEREAS, the national U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lands make up a significant area of this state and includes the Sand Lake National Wildlife Refuge encompassing over twenty-one thousand acres and over one hundred and fifty thousand acres of waterfowl production areas; and

WHEREAS, most of these U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lands in this state are concentrated in the prairie pothole region on the eastern side of the state and disproportionally impact the tax collections of counties within the region; and

WHEREAS, the road system in eastern South Dakota is designed around a one-mile grid, meaning hundreds of miles of rural county and township roads lie adjacent to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lands that are all maintained and repaired using local tax dollars; and

WHEREAS, maintaining county and township roads often represents a significant portion of the budget for these local governments; and

WHEREAS, the extensive road system needed to support U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lands represents a significantly higher cost per acre than other national lands held in contiguous large tracts:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the House of Representatives of the Ninety-Ninth Legislature of the State of South Dakota, the Senate concurring therein, that the Legislature urges the members of South Dakota's congressional delegation collaborate to sponsor, introduce, and champion an amendment to the PILT Act to include U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lands.

Adopted by the House of Representatives, January 17, 2024

Concurred in by the Senate, January 23, 2024

_____________________ _____________________ Hugh Bartels Patricia Miller Speaker of the House Chief Clerk

_____________________ _____________________ Lee Schoenbeck Peggy Laurenz President Pro Tempore Secretary of the Senate

of the Senate