Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) released the following statement today highlighting the Department of the Interior’s announcement that 17 counties in Nevada will receive $27,250,038 in Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) payments. These funds – an increase of $250,000 from 2018 – will be used by local governments to manage the federal lands in their jurisdictions and invest in economic and community development projects.
“The Department of the Interior’s PILT program is a vital resource for Nevada’s local governments and helps fund the public safety, housing, transportation and outdoor recreation projects that Nevada’s rural counties need to thrive. I’ll continue to support the long-term stabilization of the PILT program so that local leaders and innovators can invest in development projects right here in our communities in Nevada, and plan for the future with certainty that federal support will be there for them.”
BACKGROUND:
PILT payments are federal payments to local governments that help offset losses in property taxes due to non-taxable federal lands within their boundaries. PILT payments help local governments carry out such vital services as firefighting and police protection, construction of public schools and roads, and search-and-rescue operations. The payments are made annually for tax-exempt federal lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (all agencies of the Department of the Interior), the U.S. Forest Service (part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture), and for federal water projects and some military installations. PILT payments are one of the ways the federal government can fulfill its role of being a good neighbor to local communities.
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