Local Governments will Receive $358 Million To Compensate for Tax-Exempt Federal Lands (PILT)

WASHINGTON, DC – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced today that more than 1,850 local governments around the nation will receive payments totaling $358.1 million under the Payments in Lieu of Taxes program this year to compensate them for non-taxable federal land in their jurisdictions.

“Although there was a slight delay in payments this year, local governments received their funds by June 29,” Secretary Salazar said. “We deeply appreciate the support these communities provide federal lands and disbursing this money before the counties' fiscal year begins helps them budget for essential services, such as firefighting and emergency response, and allows for additional improvements to school, road and water systems.”

The 2010 payment amounts were delayed because of late reporting by some entities and the complexity of evaluating prior year payment amounts authorized by the Mineral Leasing Act and the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act. Each of these statutes and the PILT statute include requirements that impact the development of county payment amounts under a multi-factor formula.

This year's PILT program is funded at full entitlement levels under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which enacted a five-year authorization for full funding of the PILT program. The Interior Department collects about $4 billion in revenue annually from commercial activities on federal lands, such as oil and gas leasing, livestock grazing and timber harvesting.

A portion of these revenues are shared with states and counties in the form of revenue-sharing payments. The balance is deposited in the U.S. Treasury, which in turn pays for a broad array of federal activities, including PILT funding to counties. Payment eligibility is reserved for local governments (usually counties) that contain nontaxable federal lands and provide government services related to public safety, housing, social services, transportation and the environment.

Using a formula provided in statute, the annual PILT payments to local governments are computed based on the number of acres of federal entitlement land within each county or jurisdiction and the population within that county or jurisdiction. The lands include the National Forest and National Park Systems, those managed by the Bureau of Land Management, those affected by Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation water resource development projects, and others.

Individual county payments may vary from the prior year as a result of changes in acreage data, which is updated yearly by the federal agency administering the land, and population data, which is updated using data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

For purposes of calculating the 2010 payment, the per acre amounts are adjusted for inflation from the 2009 payment of $2.37 per acre and thirty-three cents per acre to $2.40 and thirty-three cents per acre, and the population variables are adjusted from $63.68 - $159.18 to $64.56 - $161.38 per capita. The 2010 payment will fund the authorized level of $358.4 million. This includes $400,000 for program administration.

The computation also adjusts the payment for the level of prior-year revenue payments and the amount that a county receives under Sections 6904 and 6905 of the PILT Act. Revenue payments are federal payments made to local governments under programs other than PILT during the previous year. These include those made under the Refuge Revenue Sharing Fund, the National Forest Fund, the Taylor Grazing Act, the Mineral Leasing Act, the Federal Power Act, and the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000. Sections 6904 and 6905 provide additional payments for additions to the National Park System and National Forest Wilderness areas.

As a result of increases in Forest Service timber and Mineral Leasing Act payments, reductions in PILT entitlement land, expiration of section 6904/5 payments and payments falling below the $100 threshold, the total 2010 PILT payments to the following twenty-eight states will be lower than their 2009 payment: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Tennessee, Virgin Islands, Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

A complete list of funding by state is online at http://www.doi.gov/pilt.
The county by county breakdown is online at http://www.nbc.gov/pilt/pilt/search.cfm.

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