§ 1881.0-5 - Definitions.

(a) A government, as that term is used by the Bureau of the Census for general statistical purposes, is an organized entity having substantial autonomy and whose officers are either popularly elected or appointed by publicly elected officials. Other indicia of governmental character include (1) a high degree of responsibility to the public for performance of duties of a governmental nature, (2) power to levy taxes, and (3) power to issue debt paying interest exempt from Federal taxation.

(b)(1) Unit of general local government means a unit of that type of government which, within its state, is the principal provider of governmental services affecting the use of entitlement lands. Those services of government include (but are not limited to) maintenance of land records, police protection, fire protection, taxation, land use planning, search and rescue and road construction. Ordinarily, a unit of general government will be a county. However, where a smaller unit of government is the principal provider of governmental services affecting the use of public lands within a state, the smaller unit, even though within a larger unit of government, will be considered a general unit of government and will receive payments under the Act. These units of general government will ordinarily be towns or townships within states where county governments are nonexistent or nearly nonexistent. The term unit of general government also includes:

(i) Governments with the functions of a unit of general local government in that state combined with another type of government such as city, township, parish, borough or county, e.g., a city and county as in the City and County of Denver.

(ii) Cities located outside of any of the units of general local government for that state and administering functions commonly performed by those units of general local government.

(iii) Alaskan boroughs in existence on October 20, 1976, and, beginning October 1, 1978, for purposes of payment under section 3 of the Act, a unit of local government in Alaska located outside of boundaries of an organized borough which acts as the collecting and distributing agency for real property taxes.

(iv) The Governments of the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands.

(2) The term unit of general local government excludes single purpose or special purpose units of local government such as school districts or water districts.

(c) (1) Entitlement lands are lands owned by the United States which are:

(i) Within the National Park System including wilderness areas;

(ii) Within the National Forest System including wilderness areas and also including those areas of Superior National Forest, Minnesota, set forth in 16 U.S.C. 577d and 577d-1 (1970);

(iii) Administered by the Secretary of the Interior through the Bureau of Land Management;

(iv) Water resource projects administered by the Bureau of Reclamation or Corps of Engineers;

(v) Dredge disposal areas administered by the Corps of Engineers;

(vi) Beginning October 1, 1978, lands on which are located semiactive or inactive installations, not including industrial installations, retained by the Army for mobilization purposes and for support of reserve component training;

(vii) Beginning October 1, 1978, lands designated as reserve areas, which means any area of land withdrawn from the public domain and administered, either solely or primarily, by the Secretary through the Fish and Wildlife Service. For the purpose of these regulations, reserve areas also include lands in Hawaii, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands, which were initially administered by the United States through an act of Congress, Executive Order, Public Land Order or Proclamation of the President and administered, either solely or primarily, by the Secretary through the Service; or

(viii) Lands located in the vicinity of Purgatory River Canyon and Pinon Canyon, Colorado, that were acquired by the United States after December 23, 1981, to expand the Fort Carson military installation.

(2) Entitlement lands do not include:

(i) Lands that were owned or administered by a State or unit of local government and which, at the time title was conveyed to the United States, were exempt from payment of real estate taxes. However, beginning October 1, 1978, this exclusion shall not apply to any entitlement land which is or was acquired by a State or unit of local government from private parties for the purpose of donation of such land to the Federal Government and which is or was donated within eight years of the date of acquisition thereof by the State or unit of local government.

(ii) Any land for which any money was paid to a unit of local government pursuant to the Act of August 28, 1937 (50 Stat. 875) or the Act of May 24, 1939 (53 Stat. 753) in that fiscal year.

(d) Money transfers means money or cash payments received by units of local government under the statutes in section 4 of the Act, 31 U.S.C. 1604. The term does not include payments made to a State and distributed by the State directly to a school district or other single or special purpose governmental entities, or payments distributed by the State to the unit of local government which the unit of local government is required by State law to pass on to a school district or other independent single or special purpose governmental entity.

(e) Authorized officer means that official within the Bureau of Land Management delegated the authority to carry out the provisions of the Act.