Blaine County has received a much-welcome windfall—just over $1.8 million from the federal government's Payment in Lieu of Taxes program. The money is paid as compensation for forgone property taxes to counties that include nontaxable federal land.
The state of Idaho received just under $25.3 million dollars under the program, $1.1 million less than last year. Blaine County was the state's third-highest recipient.
Normally, PILT payments are made in early June, but this year they were slightly delayed. In a news release, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar stated that all local governments received their funds by June 29.
"We deeply appreciate the support these communities provide federal lands," Salazar said. "Disbursing this money before the counties' fiscal year begins helps them budget for essential services, such as firefighting and emergency response."
Though the payment to Blaine County was slightly higher than last year's, the Interior Department said the payments for 2010 were slightly adjusted for inflation.
The Interior Department annually takes in about $4 billion from commercial activities on federal land such as grazing, oil and gas leasing and timber harvesting.
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A portion of the revenue goes to 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 the PILT program.
PILT payments are made to 1,850 local governments, and are determined based on the county's number of acres of federal land, population and other sources of federal funding. Because of this formula, counties that have a relatively high proportion of federal land can receive less funding than others with less federal acreage.
Custer County, in central Idaho's Salmon River country, received almost $700,000 in return for nearly 3 million acres of federal land, considerably less than Blaine County's $1.8 million for just about 1.3 million acres of land.
Ninety-six percent of Custer County is made up of federal land, including land managed by the Challis and Sawtooth national forests. However, Custer County's population of 4,240 is much less than Blaine County's 22,328.
In the past, the program has only been funded at two-thirds the level allowed by law. This year's program was fully funded under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which enacted a five-year authorization for full funding of PILT.
Katherine Wutz: kwutz@mtexpress.com
Public lands, including the headwaters of the Salmon River near Galena Summit, above, are abundant in Blaine County. Photo by Mountain Express
