Paying for and maintaining the property is one possible use. Allowing it to go fallow and sit is another. Generally speaking the government lets land sit unless it can make money off of:
- timber leases
- mineral leases
- grazing leases
No extortion is involved. If you don’t want to pay the lease agreements, don’t expect to get the timber, the minerals or the grazing.
I was referring to the extortion of the taxpayer, being forced to pay the Federal gov’t for things they don’t have a constitutional right to do.
We already have to pay local property taxes in order to keep the property we privately own.