Utah gets $20 million to offset loss

WASHINGTON — Utah received just over $20 million from the Interior Department last week through the federal program designed to help states offset the loss of property tax revenue that can't be collected on federal land.

Salt Lake County received $126,314 in payment-in-lieu-of-taxes funds, known as PILT money for 96,377 acres, about a $3,000 increase from last year. Tooele County received the largest share of the $20,055,933 the state received from the Interior Department with $1.9 million for 2 million acres, also higher than last year.

Overall, the state received $433,709 more than it did last year, according to the Interior Department.

"These important dollars help states offset the loss of tax revenues to counties that contain federal land," Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said in a statement. "We recognize the impact of federal land management on local communities and this money will help pay for essential services such as firefighting, search-and-rescue operations and a host of other badly needed on-the-ground services."

But Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, called PILT "simply a small effort to right this huge wrong."

"It's ridiculous to think Western counties can adequately fund their infrastructure and county services needs when we've locked up the majority of their potentially taxable land base," Bishop said. "I'm glad to see these funds headed to counties that deserve this money. But in reality, they don't just deserve the money, they deserve to get their lands back. That would be the ultimate and better solution."

The House approved an amendment to next year's Interior Department budget Bishop and Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, sponsored. That amendment put an additional $16 million into the PILT fund, bringing it to $244 million for next year, if the Senate agrees to the same number. It is not clear how much Utah would get out of the figure just yet.

"It is imperative that we keep fighting for funding so that rural counties won't have to continue to foot the bill for lands owned by the federal government," said Cannon, who is the chairman of the Western Caucus in the House. "PILT funds are important to the American people who live in these public lands communities, the majority of which are in the Western states."

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