About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

B-191123 1 (1978-06-13)

handle is hein.gao/gaobadgck0001 and id is 1 raw text is: : ~4%THE COMPTROLLER GENE1RAL~e4- DECISION . THE. PT uE UITE BTATUs WASHINGTON. D.C. 205CS FILE: 8*491123 DATE: June 13, 1978 MATTER OF: Payments in Lieu of Taxes on Coos Bay Wagon Road Lands in Oregon DIGEST: Bureau of Land Management, Department of Interior, it authorized to certify payments in lieu of taxes to Douglas and Coos.Counties, Oregon, pursuant to the Act of May 24, 1939, notwithstanding a recent change in State law which taxes timber lands on a severance, instead of ad valorem, tax basis. Change in method of coriputing taxF2oes riot relieve United States of tax equivalent payment obligations as long as purpose and payment principles of 1939 Act are not changed by new State law. The Deputy Solicitor, Department of the Interior, has asked for our decision on the availability of funds for payments in lieu of taxes on the so-called Coos Bay Wagon Road lands in Oregon in view of a new Oregon law which changes the method of taxing timber. The Act of May 24, 1939, 53 Stat. 753, 43 U.S. C. 55 1181f-1 through f-4 (Supp. V 1975), requires the Secretary of the Treasury, upon certification by the Secretary of the Interior, to make annual payments in lieu of taxes to Douglas aid Coos Counties, Oregon. Payments are to be made from a fund inade up of a specified percen- tage of revenues from the Coos Bay Wagon Road lands in these coun- tics. The payments are to be compute by applying the same rates of taxation as are applied to privately .:ined property of similar character in Douglas and Coos counties. 43 U.S. C. S 1181 f-1. Until this year, timber lands in western Oregon. such cs the Wagon Road lands, were subject to an ad valoem tax on the value of the land and the timber. On July 28, 197'77 Orcgidenacted a statute., effective January 1, 1978, which continued the ad valorem taxation of western tiiiiber lands, but stibstituted oPeyerace or stumpage tax on the timber. The severance tax is based, not on the value of the stands of timbsr, but on the value of the timber harvested. The issue is whether the 1939 Act authorizes the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), wht..h carries out the responsibilities of the Secretary of the Interior under the Act, to certify payments to Douglas and Coos Counties on the basis of the severance tax. Public lands were granted by the United States to the Oregon and California Railroad Co. and the Coos Bay Wagon Road Co. in the years -1- ii 4 'I Ia

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most