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Oct. 5, 2000 By Janelle Holden The BLM issued a $136,136 check to Montezuma County for Payments in Lieu of Taxes on September 21. Last year the county received $112,336 — $24,200 less than this year. Tom Weaver, Montezuma County administrator, said that the county had budgeted for $133,000 and the money would be used for improving county roads. Each year, Congress appropriates PILT monies to offset the loss of tax revenue caused by the presence of tax-exempt federal land within counties. The BLM allocates the payments according to a formula in the PILT Act that includes population and the amount of federal land within a county. Close to two-thirds of Montezuma County is designated as tax-exempt federal land. The payments are in addition to other federal revenues such as livestock grazing and timber harvesting that the federal government transfers to the counties. The BLM sent payments totaling $134 million to approximately 1,977 local government units across the United States this year. These payments are nearly $9 million more than last year’s total, which was $125 million. Since the payments began in 1977, the BLM has distributed more than $2 billion to local governments. Except for Rhode Island, every state will receive PILT funds for fiscal year 1999, which ended September 30. Colorado received the fifth-largest amount with $10,296,073 coming to the state. "Through PILT payments, local governments carry out vital services such as firefighting and police protection and construction of public schools and roads," said BLM Director Tom Fry, in a press release. Weaver said that although the money is "better than nothing," it is still a small portion of what the county needs to make up for the mere 33 percent of private property. "We just don’t have much of the land base paying the taxes," said Weaver. "We’re no different than La Plata County or San Miguel County — that’s just something we deal with out here in the West." |
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