Successful Bipartisan Amendment Increases PILT Funding

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. John Salazar (CO-3) today announced that a bipartisan coalition of Western members of the House of Representatives succeeded in increasing funding for the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program in the Fiscal Year 2008 Interior Appropriations bill by $20 million.

The bipartisan Salazar/Udall/Cannon/Bishop/Matheson/Musgrave/Heller PILT Amendment directs an additional $20 million to next year's PILT funding, which brings the total amount for PILT funding to $253 million in the House bill.  This is $63 million more than President George Bush requested for the program and a significant increase over last year’s level of $232 million.

PILT is a federal program to compensate counties for tax revenue lost due to large amounts of public lands being in the counties. Since counties cannot collect federal taxes on land owned by the federal government, PILT provides counties payments to compensate for that lost tax revenue based on the amount of federal land within their county.

“This is a great victory for states such as Colorado where many of our counties are dependent on these PILT funds for their infrastructure, schools and emergency services. The PILT program is crucial for communities to be able to make up for lost tax revenue for those counties with large amounts of federal land. I was very pleased that this bipartisan western coalition was able to get this amendment approved. I will continue the fight to resist the President’s proposed cuts in PILT and to increase the funding to the full level fully authorized by law. I am also hopeful the Senate will agree with the House’s higher level of funding for this important program,” said Salazar.

This amendment was approved by a voice vote and attached to the interior appropriations bill, which will soon move to the Senate for consideration.