ACTION NEEDED:
Urge your members of Congress to support mandatory full funding for the Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program. Because local governments are unable to tax the property values or products derived from federal lands, PILT payments are necessary to support essential local government services. Unless Congress acts, counties will have received their last fully-funded PILT disbursement in 2018.
Without mandatory full funding, PILT will remain a discretionary program (subject to the annual appropriations process) and could fall back to pre-2008 funding levels, which would devastate local government service delivery in areas with significant federal land ownership.
KEY TALKING POINTS:
- The PILT program provides payments to counties and other local governments to offset losses in tax revenues due to the presence of substantial federal land acreage within their jurisdictions.
- Because local governments are unable to tax the property values or products derived from federal lands, PILT payments are necessary to support essential local government services (mandated by law) such as education, emergency services, transportation infrastructure, law enforcement and health care in over 1,850 counties in 49 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
- Without predictable mandatory funding, PILT will remain a discretionary program subject to the annual appropriations process. Counties urge the administration and Members of Congress to support long-term predictable full funding for PILT in FY 2019 and beyond.
- While the Senate and House continue to discuss legislative solutions for funding the PILT program, NACo will continue to urge leadership in both chambers and on both sides of the aisle to work together to fully fund the program.
For further information, contact: Jonathan Shuffield at 202.942.4207 or jshuffield@naco.org
