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Brief
Gem State Roundup
Idaho to receive $41.2 million for Payments in Lieu of Taxes, or PILT, for 2024
Sheep move through public lands near Shoshone, Idaho. Under its multiple-use and sustained yield mandates, the Bureau of Land Management manages public rangelands for various uses, including livestock grazing, recreational opportunities, healthy watersheds and wildlife habitat. (Courtesy of the Bureau of Land Management)
The U.S. Department of the Interior announced that Idaho’s 44 counties will receive a total of $41.2 million in Payments in Lieu of Taxes for 2024. Those payments help offset the costs of maintaining essential services in areas with tax-exempt federal lands, according to a press release from the department.
The amount of each payment is based on the number of federal acres and the population within each county. For example, Ada County received $995,859 for its 298,118 acres, Blaine County received $2,885,766 for 1,325,118 acres and Lewis County received $10,314 for 3,081 acres.
The payments cover lands across the U.S. managed by the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation Commission.
“Payments in Lieu of Taxes payments help local governments carry out vital services, such as firefighting and police protection, construction of public schools and roads, and search-and-rescue operations,” Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget, Joan Mooney, said in the release.
Since the payments began in 1977, the Department of Interior has distributed nearly $12 billion to states, including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands. The department generates over $22.2 billion annually from commercial activities on public lands, a portion of which is allocated to states and counties, with the remainder deposited into the U.S. Treasury to fund various federal activities, including Payments in Lieu of Taxes.
Individual payments may vary each year because of changes in federal land acreage, previous revenue-sharing payments and adjustments for inflation and population data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
To learn more about Payments in Lieu of Taxes, or to see a full list of funding by state and county, visit the U.S. Department of the Interior website.
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