Senator Martin Heinrich
Appearances
The Charlie Kirk Show
The Confirmation Continuum: Day 3
That concludes round one. We're going to do a quick round two with some follow-ups that a few members have asked. I want to talk to you briefly about the fact that public lands represent a massive part public asset, yet a lack of an accurate valuation is something that we don't have, and that undermines informed decision-making about their use and their management.
The Charlie Kirk Show
The Confirmation Continuum: Day 3
What steps would you take if confirmed as secretary to improve the transparency in this area and ensure federal land valuations reflect their value to the American people?
The Charlie Kirk Show
The Confirmation Continuum: Day 3
Thank you. I appreciate that. I've got another question that I was going to ask regarding PILT in the interest of time. I'm going to forego that. I'll just conclude it with a very brief statement. PILT payment in lieu of taxes, the federal government came up with it, Congress came up with it about 50 years ago.
The Charlie Kirk Show
The Confirmation Continuum: Day 3
to help offset the burden states carry, states with a lot of public land, because they don't receive any property tax revenue from it. So it's supposed to offset that. In some parts of the country where there's a lot of public land, this works out okay.
The Charlie Kirk Show
The Confirmation Continuum: Day 3
In other parts, it's pennies on the dollar compared to what they would get if they could tax the land even at its lowest valuation and lowest rate. So I would love to talk to you about PILT reforms and making PILT generally a priority because a lot of these communities rely on it for fire, search and rescue, schools, safety, so forth. Senator Heinrich.