With Congress in its final session of the year, what’s become an annual lobbying effort for Federal in-lieu tax payments has intensified for some 30 rural California counties, including Nevada County. The program mitigates the impact to county governments and schools from the loss of property taxes due to nontaxable Federal lands. That’s around 40-million dollars annually. But Nevada County Supervisor Nate Beason says the payments are no longer automatic….

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In recent years, the Rural County Representatives of California, of which Beason is a board member, has been urging Congress to make the payments permanent again. Beason says Nevada County’s last payment was in April, amounting to around 338-thousand dollars for their general fund…

click to listen to Nate Beason

But Beason says prospects for making the program a permanent part of the federal budget appear slim again, due to the frequent political gridlock he’s observed. He does point out that Congressman Doug LaMalfa fully supports the counties’ efforts.