One "Forest Funds" program has been authorized, county likely to receive federal payment in June

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).