County slated to receive $698K in federal PILT funds

Lincoln County stands to receive $698,006 in federal payment in lieu taxes funds this year.

The county is one of more than 1,900 jurisdictions to receive the dollars through the program, which compensates local governments for nontaxable federal lands. Overall, the Interior Department will distribute about $514.7 million across the nation this year.

Last year, the county received $680,555, meaning that it will see a $17,451 increase in 2020. The Interior Department will dole out $35.1 million across Montana, up from $33.9 million in 2019.

Still, that figure is down from the $40 million state allocation in 2018. Lincoln County received $1.6 million that year.

That fluctuation is part of the reason county officials do not budget for PILT dollars, said County Commissioner Jerry Bennett (D-2).

“We never know what that amount is going to be, so we certainly don’t budget for it or even plan on it,” he said. “Because one day it might not be there.”

Localities have free rein on how to spend the federal dollars. In a June 29 press release announcing this year’s allocation of the money, Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt said the funding helps communities pay for services like “emergency response, public safety, public schools, housing, social services and infrastructure.”

In nearby Flathead County, PILT dollars were used to fund the South Campus Building and the main courthouse building. A portion each year is earmarked for the road department. That county topped the state in PILT funding this year, receiving slightly more than $3 million.

Locally, commissioners funded the overhaul of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office’s emergency communications and records system earlier this year with PILT monies.

Sheriff Darren Short petitioned the board in December for more than $800,000 to upgrade the existing dispatch and radio system, used by his office and other emergency responders in Lincoln County. The request came as concern that the agency’s outdated records system soon would become incompatible with federal systems.

Short told commissioners at the time that the problem had only become apparent since he took office in 2018.

Commissioners approved dipping into the county’s then-$2.9 million PILT fund to pay for the upgrade.

Bennett said setting aside payment-in-lieu dollars for emergencies is the county’s policy.

“Fortunately, we hang pretty tightly onto it so that when [unexpected expenses] do happen, we have the money to then do those things without having to go out and borrow,” he said. “It’s our rainy day fund.”

PILT payments are calculated using a statutory formula that accounts for the federal acreage in a jurisdiction as well as its local population. Funding tends to vary as a result of changes in acreage information, population data and revenue sharing payments reported annually by the governor’s office.

In Lincoln County, federal land accounts for 1,746,346 acres. That includes land overseen by the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.

The allocated money comes from the more than $13.2 billion in revenue generated by commercial use of public land, including oil and gas leasing, grazing and timber harvesting, according to federal officials.

Daily Inter Lake News Editor Lynnette Hintze contributed to this report.