Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt announced Thursday that more than 1,900 local governments around the country are receiving $514.7-million in Payments in Lieu of Taxes, or PILT funding for 2019. Payments in lieu of taxes are made to local governments to help offset their inability to tax federal property. The distribution of PILT funds help small towns pay for critical needs like emergency response, public safety, public schools, housing, social services, and infrastructure. Teton County received nearly $2,016,000 in this year’s PILT payment which offsets the taxes that would otherwise be realized from the 2,624,609 acres of federal land in the county. The formula used to compute the payments is based on population, revenue-sharing payments, and the amount of Federal land within an affected county. The payments are made annually on federal lands administered by U.S. Department of the Interior agencies including the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of Agriculture’s U.S. Forest Service and for federal water projects and some military installations.
