WASHINGTON - Fifty-five U.S. senators, including Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett of Utah, are seeking $240 million to compensate counties with large sections of federal land - about $40 million more than requested by the Bush administration. The Payment in Lieu of Taxes program is designed to compensate communities, mostly in the West, that lose tax revenue because of large federal holdings in their counties. "These funds are critical to the budgets of local governments, which supply many essential services such as search and rescue, law enforcement, road maintenance and education," the senators wrote. President Bush requested $198 million for the program next year, $37 million less than was provided to counties last year and about $152 million less than Congress authorized. "This places an undue financial hardship on our counties, who are mandated by law to provide many critical public services," the senators wrote. The senators, led by Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., sent the letter to their colleagues writing the Interior Department spending bill, urging $240 million for the program, a slight increase over last year. Western House members had asked for the program to be fully funded at the roughly $350 million level, but only $213 million has been included in the bill so far. "It's going to be a tough year," said Robert Weidner, a lobbyist for several rural Utah counties. "I don't know what we do if it doesn't get funded. Counties are strapped like never before."

-Robert Gehrke