$30,285,246 in PILT Money Pours into Montana Counties

This week, the federal government released Payment in Lieu of Taxes (or PILT) funds to counties across the United States that are adjacent to federally managed land for Fiscal Year 2017. According to Ravalli County Commissioner Jeff Burrows, the amount is higher than expected.

"We got about 2.2 million dollars from them this year," Burrows said. "It was a little bit higher than expected. Last year we got about 2.1 million dollars, so it was a pleasant surprise."

Burrows estimates that the PILT funds make up about twenty percent of Ravalli County's budget, but fears that members of congress don’t understand the importance of the funding after sequestration delayed PILT payments last fiscal year.

"I think it's hard for some of the representatives in congress to understand how important it is," Burrows said. "On the western side of this country we have states that have a very high percentage of federal public lands, it's hard many of them to understand when they haven't seen counties like Ravalli County which is 70+ percent Forest Service."

Overall, Montana counties received more than thirty million dollars from PILT. Flathead County received the most money, at a little over 2.5 million dollars.