County to receive $1.1M in PILT payments

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, Kootenai County will receive $791,074; Bonner County, $1.1 million; Boundary County, $1 million; Shoshone County, $591,041; and Benewah County, $120,510.

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 the Interior has distributed nearly $12 billion to states. 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.