Nevada to Receive Nearly $27m in PILT

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke announced that over 1,900 local governments around the country will receive $552.8 million in Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) funding for 2018. This is the largest amount ever allocated in the program’s 40-year history. This continues to underscore the Trump Administration’s commitment to local communities.

Nevada will receive $26,987,166 in PILT funding in 2018. Eureka County will get $349,000 of that total while neighboring White Pine County is set to receive $1,275,787. Elko County will get the third largest cut in the state at $3,533,219. A full list of funding by state is available at https://www.doi.gov/pilt. Payments by county are available at https://www.nbc.gov/pilt/counties.cfm.

PILT payments are federal payments to local governments that help offset losses in property taxes due to non-taxable federal lands within their boundaries. PILT payments help local governments carry out such vital services as firefighting and police protection, construction of public schools and roads, and search-and-rescue operations. The payments are made annually for tax-exempt federal lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (all agencies of the Department of the Interior), the U.S. Forest Service (part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture), and for federal water projects and some military installations. PILT payments are one of the ways the federal government can fulfill its role of being a good neighbor to local communities.

Using a formula provided by statute, the annual PILT payments to local governments are computed based on the number of acres of federal land within each county or jurisdiction and the population of that county or jurisdiction.