Washington County’s federal PILT payment down slightly for 2019

Washington County will see a decrease in the annual Payment in Lieu of Taxes check from the federal government for 2019.
 Washington County was one of over 1,900 local governments around the country to receive a portion of the $514.7 million in PILT funding for 2019.  
 The payments go mostly to western states to help offset the loss in property taxes to counties that would be collected if the land were private and taxable.
 For 2019, Washington County will receive a federal payment of $847,486, a decrease of about $75,000 from the 2018 PILT payment of $920,135. Prior to 2019, the PILT payments to the county had increased annually for three years.
 The formula used to calculate payments is contained in the PILT law and  is based on population, receipt sharing payments and the amount of federal land within a county. PILT payments are renewed on a year-to-year basis so the amount can vary.
 The 2019 payment to Washington County was based on 340,642 acres of public land within the county. The 2018 payment was based on 340,676 acres of public land.
 A total of $32.2 million was paid to Idaho’s 44 counties in 2019. The largest single payment to any one county in Idaho went to Elmore County, which received $2.56 million based on 1.35 million acres of public land.
 PILT funds from the Department of Interior help county governments in rural areas carry out services like firefighting and law enforcement protection, construction of public schools and roads and search-and-rescue operations.
 Washington County commissioners have used the PILT money in the last couple of years to augment the county’s justice fund, which includes law enforcement, courts, and a couple of other county departments.
 Commissioners have said the county cannot levy enough in property taxes to pay for law enforcement services and stay within the state-mandated 3 percent tax growth cap. Idaho counties cannot raise their tax rates by more than 3 percent annually.
 In the past, the county also has socked away some PILT money in a reserve fund. During the economic downturn more than a decade ago, the rainy day fund helped the county balance its budget.
 In 2018, Washington County commissioners joined a class-action lawsuit filed against the federal government for underpayment on Payment in Lieu of Taxes revenue for fiscal years 2015-2017. The lawsuit contended that counties were underpaid in previous years and seeks back PILT payments from the federal government.
 The county added its name to the list of class-action lawsuit plaintiffs. It cost the county nothing to join the lawsuit, officials said.
 The county would potentially be in line for $30,000 in back payments,  minus the contingency fee that the law firm handling the litigation would take.
 The class-action lawsuit started in 2017 in Kane County, Utah. The lawsuit lays out the claim that  due to insufficient appropriations for fiscal years 2015–2017, PILT recipients did not receive the full amount they were entitled to under the statute.
 The Department of Interior collects more than $11.9 billion annually from commercial activities on public lands, such as oil and gas leasing, livestock grazing, and timber harvesting. A portion of these revenues is shared with states and counties. The balance is deposited in the U.S. Treasury, which in turn pays for a broad array of federal activities, including PILT funding.