Churchill County will receive more than $2.3 million from the federal Payments In Lieu of Taxes program. Counties receive compensation for having large percentages of federal government land such as the Stillwater Wildlife Refuge northeast of Fallon.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., has announced the U.S. Department of the Interior has awarded Nevada counties a total of $27.87 million through the Payments In Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program.
In part because of the large swath of land controlled by the Naval Air Station Fallon, Churchill County will receive $2.39 million. Neighboring Lyon County’s share of the pot comes to $2.3 million.
PILT provides compensation to local governments that have large percentages of federal land within their borders. Those percentages in some Nevada counties are higher than 90 percent and are exempt from state and local property taxes.
The result is a lack of local revenue to support a long list of local services. The money pays for firefighting and police protection, school and road construction, and other services.
Masto said the payments are made to compensate for non-taxable lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service as well as the U.S. Forest Service and Department of Agriculture as well as military installations.
The largest awards went to Clark, Washoe, Elko and Nye counties. The smallest to Carson City and Storey County.
Washoe was on top at $3.77 million followed by Clark at $3.7 million and Elko at $3.69 million. Nye will receive $3.4 million.
Carson City’s 42,805 acres — mostly in the east slope of the Sierra and Tahoe Basin — qualifies for $117,542 for this federal fiscal year. Storey will get just $40,910 for the 14,474 acres of federal land there. Douglas County, which is largely non-federal land outside the Tahoe Basin, will receive $718,132.
Comments
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
Sign in to comment