Nye County commissioners Monday voted to approve an annual $11.5 million contract to renew the payment equal to taxes, or PETT, received from the U.S. Department of Energy for the property value of Yucca Mountain.

DOE will provide 43 percent of the amount, $4.95 million, before Jan. 31, 2009, as the federal government is operating under a continuing funding resolution. The balance will be provided when the DOE receives the remainder of it's 2008-2009 fiscal year funding.

The last five-year PETT agreement expired this year. It has served as an essential cash cow for Nye County that funds a wide variety of county projects. There was some sign of concern over the level of continued, future funding from the incoming presidential administration.

The agreement was submitted under protest as the county will have to pay almost $100,000 per year in possessory use taxes due from Bechtel-SAIC, the contractor for the Yucca Mountain project for the last three years. That company was replaced by USA Inc., a joint venture, last May.

Assistant County Manager Pam Webster said the DOE wants Nye County to pay a maximum of $100,000 for each of the last three years in possessory use taxes. The county will agree to pay for the 2008-09 tax and attempt to negotiate those of previous years.

Nye County Commission Chairman Joni Eastley, was upset over the required payment.

"This is a multi-billion-dollar corporation and we have to pay their damn taxes for them. Commissioner Eastley votes aye, and it just galls me to have to do that," she said by conference call from Tonopah after the vote.

During an interview after her relection as District 2 commissioner Nov. 4, Eastley expressed concerns over continued funding of PETT as President-elect Barack Obama said publicly he opposes the Yucca Mountain project.

Nye County was offered a five-year agreement by DOE increasing PETT payments by $250,000 every year, from $11.5 million in the 2008-09 fiscal year to $12.5 million by 2013. But commissioners in July 2007 voted to turn down that offer, in hopes of doubling that amount, to $29 million by 2013.

Rick Spees from the Washington, D.C., law firm of Akerman Senterfitt, had been hired to negotiate the PETT agreement as part of his monthly $17,500 fee for representing Nye County in Congress.

Last February, commissioners decided to settle for the original DOE offer, then asked to have PETT funding taken out of a line item on the 2008-09 appropriation budget.

Congress cut the Yucca Mountain budget last year from $494.5 million to $386.5 million. The present payment for 2008-2009 was based upon 2.5 percent of total funds appropriated for nuclear waste disposal activities, but not less than $11.5 million as long as the total appropriation to the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management is equal to or greater than $357 million.

Further cuts in the program by the Obama administration could reduce that $11.5 million county allocation.

Last February, Spees said, "If we don't have a new agreement, then we are totally at the mercy of the new department to give us whatever number they want next year."

Commissioners Monday acted on an Oct. 30 letter from Edward Sproat III, director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, who said Nye County and the U.S. Department of Energy are mutually interested in reaching a long-term agreement covering PETT payments.

Darrell Lacy, Nye County director of nuclear waste and federal facilities, said possessory use taxes have been an unresolved issue in the five-year renewal agreement. A 9th U.S. Circuit Court ruling said the county can't tax federal property but can tax federal contractors for use of that property.

"The two major issues are the changing administration and the possessory use tax, which are keeping us from reaching a settlement right now," Lacy said.

Nye County received its last PETT payment in January,

Nye County Commissioner Gary Hollis, the county's liaison on nuclear waste, said the DOE doesn't want to approve a five-year contract with a new administration set to take office in January 2009.

The county is also operating under a continuing resolution to fund its oversight of the Yucca Mountain project for 2008-2009, in which the DOE provided $3 million, and another $1 million for on-site representation.

"We're looking forward to a long and continuing relationship with Nye County. A relationship with Nye County is of paramount interest to us," Allen Benson, DOE director of external affairs said.

Benson and Lacey were both waiting to see who Obama appoints as energy secretary. Then there will be a new appointment to replace Sproat as head of OCRWM.

Oversight funding for the Yucca Mountain program was cut under the Clinton administration in 1996 and 1997 but PETT payments continued.

"As long as the law is in place, we are required under the law to make these payments, and we will do that," Benson said.

After the brief commissioners' conference call, Lacey was asked to elaborate further on the future of PETT funding.

"I think the bigger question is funding for the Yucca Mountain project as a whole. I mean, if they have funding consistent with prior years, I think they would be willing to continue to pay us PETT. I don't think there's an argument on their part to pay us PETT. The big question before us is what kind of funding do we get from the new administration?" Lacey said.

He referred to comments made by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who vowed the Yucca Mountain project will die a slow and painful death. But Lacey added Congress will have to change the law before meddling with PETT.

"This is the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. It has been approved. It's not something that can be unilaterally changed by any one person," Lacey said.

County Manager Rick Osborne added, "I believe when (Obama) gets all the facts in front of him it's going to be difficult for him to eliminate Yucca Mountain as being the designated repository."

Lacey said during a recent DOE conference, delegates asked what to do about nuclear waste stored at DOE sites like Hanford, Wash., the Savannah River Site, Ga., and Oak Ridge Tenn., if there is no nuclear waste repository.

In another matter, county commissioners voted to amend a contract with water rights attorney George Benesch to represent Nye County in protesting an order by the state engineer issued Nov. 4, denying any applications to move water rights closer to Devil's Hole in Amargosa Valley.

"It's just in my opinion an arbitrary and capricious ruling. It's important we appeal this to protect our rights and the existing water rights applications we have in this area," Lacey said.

Webster said Benesch will charge probably $10,000 to $20,000 for his legal representation on the protest.

Benesch was given a contract for up to $25,000 in September for consultation and evaluation of protests on cooperative water project applications and other water-related matters impacting Nye County. His rate is $200 per hour.