County gets record $210,551 in lieu of tax payment

Boundary County has received a record annual payment of $210,551 from the government for its 475,349 acres of federal lands that cannot be taxed.

It’s also the first time in the history of the Payment of Lieu of Taxes Program that the county has received the full amount due, said Boundary County Commissioner Chairman Ron Smith.

In 2008, $172,962 was allocated to the county’s general fund, but one year earlier, the amount was $99,326. In 2004, the county received $90,182 and in 1999, $188,303.

Payment eligibility is reserved for local governments — usually counties — that contain nontaxable federal lands and provide government services related to public safety, housing, social services, transportation and the environment, according to a news release from Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.

PILT payments are c computed based on the number of acres of federal land within each county and the population, Smith said. The lands include the National Forest and National Park Systems, those managed by the Bureau of Land Management, those affected by Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation water resource development projects, and others.

About 1,850 local governments with federal land in their jurisdictions will receive a total of $381.6 million this year. The amount of money is almost four percent more for the PILT program as authorized last year by the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.

For purposes of calculating the 2009 payment, the per acre amounts areadjusted from the 2008 payment of $2.29 per acre and thirty-two cents per acre to $2.37 and thirty-three cents per acre, and the population variables are adjusted from $61.41 - $153.50 to $63.68 - $159.18 per capita.

Commissioners can use the money for however they choose, including law enforcement, search and rescue and operating the landfill.

The county is currently operating on a $13.9 million budget. Smith expects a lower budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

“We’re basing that on the economy,” he said. “We need to consider that.