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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2015 - 2016
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | December 29, 2014 03:26 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Martin T. Causer |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Forest Reserves Municipal Financial Relief Law - Former HB 444 |
| In the near future I intend to reintroduce legislation to amend the Forest Reserves Municipal Relief Law. This is similar to HB 444 from last session. This legislation is very important for counties with large tracts of state-owned land. State agencies do pay a small payment in lieu of taxes to the local municipalities, school districts and counties. However, the state agencies are obtaining significant revenue from the sale of timber, oil and natural gas from these properties, and no revenue from the sale of these resources is coming back to the struggling local municipalities. The local governments where the state land is located are restricted from future economic development and continually struggle with the limited tax base. This legislation would provide for 20 percent of the total revenue collected from the sale of timber, oil and natural gas on state-owned land (with the exception of state game lands) to be deposited into a restricted fund for disbursement to local governments across the commonwealth proportionally based on the number of acres of state land in each municipality, school district and county. This legislation is similar to federal law that provides revenue to local governments from the sale of timber on the National Forest. Previous Co-Sponsors of HB 444: HENNESSEY, HELM, MILLARD, STERN, BAKER, KORTZ, MALONEY, C. HARRIS, RAPP, MAJOR, ROCK, HESS, STEVENSON, M. K. KELLER, FLECK, PICKETT, CLYMER, DENLINGER, MURT, PEIFER, GABLER, EVERETT and METCALFE |
Introduced as HB343