PILT payments released to Montana

Montana counties will receive a total of $31.8 million in Payment in Lieu of Taxes or PILT payments from the U.S. Department of the Interior for 2017, including more than a million for Blaine County, a press release from the Department of the Interior said Monday.

“As a kid who grew up in northwest Montana and whose sons graduated from the same high school as I did, I know how important PILT payments are to local communities that have federal lands,” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, a Whitefish native, said in a press release. “These investments are one of the ways the federal government is fulfilling its role of being a good land manager and good neighbor to local communities.”

A breakdown of the latest round of PILT payments on the Interior Department website says Montana counties receiving payments include: $1,013,358 for Blaine County; $374,820 for Chouteau County; $121,875 for Hill County and $82,747 for Liberty County.

Zinke said, in all $464.6 million in PILT funds is being released, the largest amount in the program’s 40-year history.

“PILT payments help Montana counties provide critical services and keep a balanced budget,” U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said in a press release Monday. “Local officials will use these resources to build roads, support important infrastructure projects, and bolster local police and fire departments. I know how important PILT payments are to Montana, and I will keep fighting to secure these essential investments for rural communities.”

“PILT payments are essential for Montana’s rural counties — to keep our public services operating,” U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said in a press release this morning. “The PILT program provides critical support for the safety of Montana’s rural counties.”

PILT payments are made to local governments to offset losses from taxexempt land administered by the Bureau of Land Management, National Parks Service, the U.S. Fish Wildlife Service; U.S. Forest Service; federal water projects; and certain military installations the Department of the Interior website says.

Money from the payments is used by  local governments to offset losses in revenue to fund operations such as search and rescue operations, police and fire services, schools and infrastructure.  

Though PILT payments have been secured for 2017, Tester has said he is concerned about President Donald Trump’s 2018 proposed budget that would cut funding for PILT by $70 million.

The Interior Department website said nearly $8 billion in PILT payments have been distributed since payments started being made in 1977.