Idaho will receive a total of $42.9 million in Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) funding for 2025. Since local governments cannot tax federal lands, annual PILT payments help cover the costs associated with maintaining community services.
Boundary County, with 475,220 of federal land, will receive $1,064,852 in PILT payments, to be used to offset expenses for county road and bridge and
“Where the federal government owns large plots of land and does not pay local property taxes in rural communities, it has a responsibility to provide resources for vital services such as firefighting, police protection, construction of public schools and roads, and search-and-rescue operations,” said Idaho Senator Mike Crapo. “PILT payments give Idaho’s 44 counties much-needed stability for essential services.”
The U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) collects more than $20.7 billion in revenue annually from commercial activities on public lands. A portion of those revenues is shared with states and
counties. The balance is deposited into the U.S. Treasury, which, in turn, pays for a broad array of federal activities, including PILT funding.
Payments are calculated based on the number of acres of federal land within each county or jurisdiction and the population of that county or jurisdiction.