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CORRECTION / UPDATE: |
One "Forest Funds" program has been authorized,
county likely to receive federal payment in June |
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March 9, 2015 |
NewsBF recently published an article on Forest
Funds, which included information on federal
funds provided to Boundary County through the
Secure Rural Schools program and the Payment in
Lieu of Taxes program. (You can see that article
by clicking here).
In that article, we stated that funding for both
of these programs was still under consideration
in Congress, and had not yet been authorized.
Since then, we have learned that in fact federal
funding for the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program
(the PILT program) has been authorized. This was
accomplished via two bills: the Fiscal Year 2015
Consolidated and Further Continuing
Appropriations Act, which provided $372 million
for PILT funding, and the Buck McKeon National
Defense Authorization Act, which provided $70
million in PILT funding. This legislation was
finalized and signed in mid-December 2014, fully
funding the PILT program for one more year with
a total of $442 million.
NewsBF contacted a representative of the U.S.
Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C.
today, who confirmed that the PILT program has
been fully funded for fiscal year 2015. He
further indicated that payments to counties
under this program have traditionally occurred
in June in years past, and that it is
anticipated the payments to counties, including
Boundary County, Idaho, would most likely be
made in June of this year.
Last year, Boundary County received $362,097
from the federal government under the PILT
program, a program designed to mitigate to some
degree counties' being unable to collect taxes
on federal lands within their borders. It is
anticipated Boundary County will receive a
payment similar to that amount for fiscal year
2015. Money obtained from the PILT program can
be used for any governmental purpose, and serve
to help fund essential government services that
would usually be funded from property taxes, if
property taxes could be collected on those
lands.
“We are very pleased that Congress will make a
full investment in the PILT program,” said
Matthew Chase, who is the National Association
of Counties Executive Director. “Sixty-two
percent of America’s counties have federal
public lands within their boundaries. This in an
investment in the vast network of mandated
services counties deliver to support federal
lands and communities across the country.”
The other "Forest Funds" program, the Secure
Rural Schools program, still is not yet funded
for 2015. It is possible that the Secure Rural
Schools program may yet be funded in coming
months, providing additional money for Boundary
County and the Boundary County School District.
The Secure Rural Schools program is a program
wherein the federal government shares revenues
from timber sales and harvests with counties
that have large acreages of federally-managed
forest lands. (although in recent years the
federal payments have been based on historic
timber revenue figures, rather than actual,
current figures). |
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