Biden’s Hanford budget shirks duty to Tri-Cities and ignores community needs | Editorial

The Biden Administration’s budget proposal for Hanford is a shameful disappointment.

Tri-Citians were hoping for much better. Biden’s budget doesn’t include enough cleanup money for the nuclear waste site, which is no surprise. But it also omits a compensation program that has benefited the Tri-Cities for years.

And that omission is absolutely appalling.

It sends a gut-punch message that the federal government no longer cares about its duty to offset the loss of tax revenue in the Mid-Columbia.

Tri-Citians are used to seeing reductions in the initial Hanford budget — that’s part of the game. But to see a complete elimination of funding from the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program is a new low.

Perhaps budget makers in Washington, D.C., have forgotten why PILT was created in the first place. You would think they would remember.

In 1943 the federal government seized private land in the Columbia Basin in order to produce plutonium for the Manhattan Project during World War II.

Much of that property was being farmed, and likely would still be farmed if it wasn’t now part of the Hanford site. The nuclear reservation is over 500 square miles and there’s no telling what might have developed on these lost acres had they not been sacrificed over 70 years ago for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.

With all the new vineyards and growth in the area, it’s a safe bet that loss of land at the Hanford site has resulted in millions of lost tax revenue that could have helped build county roads and bridges, fund schools and support other community needs.

For years, local Tri-City governments were not compensated for this loss.

Then, in 1994, a deal was made between the Department of Energy and the community encouraging the federal government to pay the equivalent of property taxes had Hanford land been in private ownership.

But the money is not an entitlement, and the amount changes from year to year depending on available funds. It’s been as high as $9.3 million, but has dropped significantly to about half that in the last few years.

Still, those millions of dollars mean a lot — especially to our school districts. This is money that also helps rural libraries, veterans and people who need social services.

That no PILT money was set aside for Hanford in the Biden budget is, quite frankly, a disgrace.

What’s caused even more concern is that this same budget provides PILT money for other cleanup sites around the country, just not at Hanford and not at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina — the two largest environmental cleanup projects in the nation.

Why the disparity?

Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., called the Biden Administration’s proposal “absolutely unacceptable.” He said that PILT payments are “vital” and “serve as a lifeline for rural communities in Central Washington with nontaxable federal lands.”

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., pressed DOE for an explanation at Tuesday’s U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing.

She said, “It’s just kind of surprising why such a small percentage of the Hanford budget would be eliminated. So if you could, help me understand what eliminating PILT funding is about?”

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said she knows Congress will fill it in and that she looks forward to working with Cantwell on it.

So it’s going to be a fight.

The federal government has a moral obligation to pay PILT money at Hanford and at Savannah River. This shouldn’t be such a hard ask.

Mid-Columbia communities have paid a price for being neighbors to the country’s most toxic nuclear waste facility, and PILT payments are a small way to help repair the damage.

As Washington state’s congressional delegation works to return PILT money to Benton, Franklin and Grant counties, DOE leaders should know that from the Tri-Cities’ standpoint the PILT program is about more than money.

It’s also about recognizing what the community has lost because of the federal government’s land grab.

Even if Hanford PILT money is eventually returned to the federal budget, that DOE officials were so initially dismissive of their responsibility is tough to take.