for rural county program
Idaho
Senator Mike Crapo has teamed with Colorado
Democrat Michael Bennett to spearhead a
coalition of senators who sent a letter to
senate leadership recommending full funding for
the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program in
any end-of-year legislation.Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) provide federal payments to nearly 1,900 local governments across 49 states to help offset losses in property taxes because of nontaxable federal land within state boundaries.
In Boundary County, for example, there are a total of 475,236 federally-controlled acres in our county, which represents close to 75% of Boundary County's total area.
In the past, Boundary County has received around $360,000 per year in recent years when PILT funds have been made available to counties. All of the PILT funds received by Boundary County go directly into the County's Justice Fund, used to fund several departments, but which mainly helps fund the Sheriff's Office.
“PILT funding is an important resource for many counties in Idaho and across our nation and is not exclusive to rural or western communities,” said Senator Crapo. “The strong showing of bipartisan senators on this letter is evidence that PILT payments are critical to communities nationwide. I look forward to working with all my colleagues to restore funding to this important program in a fiscally-responsible manner.”
The letter authored by Senators Crapo and Bennett was sent last Friday to Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader, and Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader. The letter was signed by 15 additional republican senators, and 20 democrats, including Idaho Senator Jim Risch and Washington Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray.
In the letter, the senators requested that "Congress include full funding for the Payments in Lieu of Taxes program for FY16 along with responsible budget offsets in any legislation likely to pass the House and Senate and be signed into law before the end of the year."
The letter went on to say, "PILT provides critical resources to nearly 1,900 counties across 49 states to offset lost property tax revenue due to the presence of tax-exempt federal lands within their jurisdictions. Without full funding for the PILT program before the end of the year, counties across the nation will be unable to provide essential services such as education, law enforcement, search and rescue, road maintenance and public health to residents and millions of federal lands visitors alike.
"Congress can work together to enact a fiscally responsible long-term sustainable solution to fully fund this important program and eliminate the ongoing funding uncertainty PILT counties face. However, as the end of the year approaches, enacting full-funding for PILT in FY 2016 is essential in order to provide counties with the certainty they need to plan their own budgets and continue providing essential county services."
Last year, PILT funding was not authorized by Congress for fiscal year 2015 until late in 2014, in mid-December.