Whitman County receives $60,000+ PILT

COLFAX – The Department of the Interior disbursed 2020 Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program funding totaling more than $3.8 million for Eastern Washington counties. Whitman County received $60,381 for 21,748 acres of federal lands. PILT are federal payments to local governments that help offset losses in property taxes due to the existence of nontaxable federal lands within their boundaries.

PILT payments help local governments carry out such vital services as firefighting and police protection, construction of public schools and roads, and search-and-rescue operations. The payments are made annually for tax-exempt federal lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service and for federal water projects and some military installations.

Using a statutory formula, the annual PILT payments to local governments are computed based on the number of acres of federal land within each county or jurisdiction and on the population of that county or jurisdiction.