Sen. Scott Hutchinson, R-Oil City, speaks during a Student Government Seminar held in March.

State Sen. Scott Hutchinson, R-Oil City, has always been sympathetic to local officials’ pushback against state land purchases taking property off the tax rolls.

Now, Hutchinson is ready to push for state legislative action.

The region’s state senator has introduced a co-sponsorship memorandum seeking support for legislation he is drafting that would require state agencies attempting to buy land to seek local government approval before the purchase takes place.

Rates to calculate PILOT payments increased from $1.20 per acre to $2.40 per acre with the passage of Act 34 of 2023, an amount Hutchinson took issue with in his memorandum.

“The Game Commission, Fish and Boat Commission, and Department of Conservation and Natural Resources are currently authorized to obtain land for government purposes,” Hutchinson wrote in his co-sponsorship memorandum. “However, land is taken off the private market without local input when acquired by these executive agencies. Municipalities are then faced with the loss of tax revenue, while only being provided with a pittance of $3 as insufficient compensation. Local communities lose their land through this process, and as a result, this land loses its practical utility, serving only state purposes and revenue generation. Endless state government ownership of land inhibits direct community, economic investment, such as housing development and private energy production.”

Hutchinson’s proposal runs counter to legislation being drafted by Rep. Mandy Steele, D-Cheswick, who is pushing legislation that would lift the cap on the purchase price the Pennsylvania Game Commission can offer when buying land. Currently, that cap is $400 an acre in all counties except a Second Class county. Steele has said it should be easier for the state Game Commission to purchase land for conservation.

The land acquisition issue became an issue locally late in 2023 when the state acquired 2,195 acres of property in a transfer that created new state game lands in western Warren County. The deal was part of a land-for-oil deal between the Pennsylvania Game Commission and Pennsylvania General Energy that transferred the the Spring Creek Tract, referred to as the “Glen Dorn Property,” to the PGC along with 943 acres in Cambria County in exchange for PGE’s ability to extract oil and gas from beneath a state game land in Lycoming County.

Local elected officials sought a meeting with the Game Commission, detailed in a letter discussed in 2024 by the Warren County Commissioners. The letter from the Spring Creek Township supervisors dated Dec. 15 claims the PGC did not see a need for a meeting.

Hutchinson followed up with a letter the following day asking the PGC to meet with the township.

“I believe it would be a move toward better public policy if the Pennsylvania Game Commission adopted a practice of accepting meetings with local government officials during the acquisition process,” Hutchinson wrote, “and not just after the fact. These land deals have major implications for Pennsylvania local governments and the Pennsylvania residents they serve.”

Expansion by the state Game Commission has been a concern for lawmakers representing rural Pennsylvania, according to a 2024 Center Square report. Hutchinson led questioning during a Senate Game and Fisheries Committee meeting asking Bryan Burhans, state game commission executive director, if there is a limit to the amount of land the Game Commission should own.

He laid out what he called strategic goals: acquiring land that provides access to existing game lands, buying properties inside game lands, and purchases that simplify management.

“We don’t prioritize ‘we want to get all the land we can,'” Burhans said. “What we do prioritize is the type of projects that we do look for.”

The PGC controls over 1.5 million acres of game lands and made $1.8 million in payments in lieu of taxes to localities to replace tax revenue, but they’re a contentious issue for legislators.

“The state owns so much land up here,” Cris Dush, R-Brookville, said. “The Game Commission owns more land than the entire state of Delaware. My problem is, when I had Indiana County, Banks Township (in my district), they were more than 50% owned by the Game Commission alone. Heath Township, the last I checked a few years back, because the Game Commission and the state parks owned so much, their annual revenue was $28,500. They can’t put a thing up to cover their equipment with that PILOtT- which I call pittance in lieu of taxes.”

Dush argued the PGC’s land expansion drives down revenues for local governments.