WINNEMUCCA - Nevada counties have received their Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) allocations from the federal government. This year, Humboldt County received $1,604,229 in PILT funding.
Although the allocation is less than last year, Humboldt County Administrator Bill Deist said it was more than he was expecting.
Deist said he feared that the federal government's budget woes would lead to a PILT funding decrease, or even to discontinuation of the program.
Federal payments to local governments are meant to help offset the money that would otherwise come to counties from property taxes, and other land revenue.
The federal government collects about $14 billion annually in revenue from commercial activities on federal lands.
Some counties use PILT funding for fire and police protection, school and road construction, and county government services. Humboldt County uses nearly all of its PILT allocation to fund the road department. A total of $25,000 in PILT funding goes into the cooperative extension budget each year to battle noxious weeds.
Deist said the uncertainty surrounding PILT allocations (both as to whether PILT will continue and the exact amount the federal government will send) is the reason Humboldt County doesn't include one cent of that money in their budget until over an entire year after it is received.
By saving the money for a year before budgeting it, the county gives itself an entire year to react to the impact that would be felt if PILT were discontinued or cut.
"I've also encouraged the commissioners not to use PILT funding for building programs," said Deist. The $1.6 million and change that the county received will be budgeted in the 2014-2015 budget.
The PILT program was created in 1977. Nevada's U.S. Senator Harry Reid put forward legislation in 2008 that fully funded PILT through 2012 and last year he worked to extend the program to 2013.
The formula used to compute the payments is based on population levels, receipt sharing payments, and the amount of federal land within an affected county.
While the Interior Department distributes PILT to 49 states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands, the largest percentage of the money goes to counties in western states where the federal government owns over 50 percent of the land.
Although the total amount of public land in Nevada is occasionally disputed, no source has suggested it is less than 80 percent.
Six Nevada counties received more in PILT funding this year than Humboldt County. Washoe County received the most in the state, at $3.2 million; Clark County was next with $3.1 million, Elko County followed at $2.8 million, Nye County received $2.8 million, Churchill County $2 million, Lyon County $1.9 million, Humboldt County is No. 7 at $1.6 million, followed by White Pine County at $1.1 million, Pershing County at $1 million and Lander County at $911,561. Storey County received the smallest PILT amount at $34,943.
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