WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced today that local governments with tax-exempt federal land in their jurisdictions will receive $228.5 million this year in compensation for forgone tax revenue.
Under the federal Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) Program, the money is distributed to about 1,850 county and other local governments around the nation to help pay for essential services, such as firefighting and emergency response and to help improve school, road and water systems.
"These communities play a key role in supporting federal lands throughout the year," Kempthorne said. "We recognize and appreciate that vital assistance and are distributing these payments to local governments by June 12, so that the funds can help the counties plan their annual budgets." The Department of the Interior annually collects about $4 billion in revenue from commercial activities on federal lands, such as livestock grazing, timber harvesting, and oil and natural gas leasing. Some 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 annually appropriated PILT funding to counties.
Eligibility for PILT payments 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.
By law, the payments are calculated using a mandated formula, based on the number of acres of federal entitlement land and the population within each county or jurisdiction. These lands include the National Forest and National Park Systems, National Wildlife Refuge System as well as lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and those affected by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation water resource development projects, and others.
Payments to individual counties may vary from the prior year because of changes in acreage data, which is updated yearly by the federal agency administering the land; and population data, which is updated based on U.S. Census Bureau data. The per acre and population variables used to compute payments are also adjusted for inflation, using the Consumer Price Index, as required by 1994 amendments to the Payments in Lieu of Taxes Act.
Payments are also adjusted 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.
For the 2008 payments, the per acre amounts are adjusted from the 2007 payment of $2.23 per acre (maximum) and thirty-one cents per acre (minimum) to $2.29 per acre and thirty-two cents per acre. The population variables are adjusted from $59.85 (minimum) - $149.61 (maximum) to $61.41 - $153.50 per capita. The 2008 payments fund about 62.2 percent of the authorized level of $367.2 million.
As a result of increases in Forest Service timber payments, reductions in PILT entitlement land, a decrease in the prorating percentage and expiration of section 6904/5 payments, the total 2008 PILT payments to the following twenty-three states will be slightly lower than the 2007 payments by more than one and a half percent: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virgin Islands, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
In addition, the FY 2008 PILT payments to Fairbanks Northstar Borough, Alaska, the Municipality of Anchorage, Alaska and Bingham County, Idaho will be reduced as a result of adjustments needed to correct for incorrect acreage data reported in prior fiscal years.
Of the $228.9 million appropriated for PILT in FY 2008, $228.5 million goes for payments to counties and other local governments; the balance funds the administration of the program.
The state-by-state list of PILT payments follows.
PAYMENTS IN LIEU TAXES FISCAL YEAR 2008 SUMMARY BY STATE
STATE FY 08
ALABAMA 434,545
ALASKA 15,608,045
ARIZONA 19,090,338
ARKANSAS 2,361,587
CALIFORNIA 20,683,852
COLORADO 17,600,691
CONNECTICUT 17,330
DELAWARE 10,550
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 15,151
FLORIDA 2,762,193
GEORGIA 1,438,778
GUAM 1,328
HAWAII 194,240
IDAHO 16,061,016
ILLINOIS 642,377
INDIANA 388,114
IOWA 263,950
KANSAS 654,922
KENTUCKY 1,458,621
LOUISIANA 320,822
MAINE 193,318
MARYLAND 65,140
MASSACHUSETTS 60,685
MICHIGAN 2,589,429
MINNESOTA 1,628,073
MISSISSIPPI 892,929
MISSOURI 1,778,216
MONTANA 16,995,313
NEBRASKA 674,714
NEVADA 14,071,406
NEW HAMPSHIRE 1,024,755
NEW JERSEY 67,719
NEW MEXICO 22,477,619
NEW YORK 85,916
NORTH CAROLINA 2,456,991
NORTH DAKOTA 907,749
OHIO 415,851
OKLAHOMA 1,537,362
OREGON 6,272,913
PENNSYLVANIA 325,067
PUERTO RICO 13,505
RHODE ISLAND 0
SOUTH CAROLINA 234,560
SOUTH DAKOTA 2,638,151
TENNESSEE 1,448,696
TEXAS 2,655,845
UTAH 20,044,139
VERMONT 533,472
VIRGIN ISLANDS 23,043
VIRGINIA 2,341,721
WASHINGTON 6,677,098
WEST VIRGINIA 1,560,496
WISCONSIN 770,373
WYOMING 15,036,089
Grand Total 228,506,803
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