Senators announce PILT payments to Oregon counites

U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley recently announced counties throughout Oregon will receive more than $30.1 million in Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) funding for 2024.

Because local governments cannot tax federal lands, annual PILT payments help to defray the costs associated with maintaining important community services. Crook County, which has 940,461 acres of federal lands, received $2.073 million.

“Oregonians cherish our public lands, and we need to make sure local communities have all the tools they need to help improve quality of life and steward our natural treasures,” Wyden said. “These PILT payments are vital to help local governments carry out necessary services like firefighting, search-and-rescue operations, road construction, schools and police protection. I’m gratified to see PILT payments to Oregon are up nearly $3 million over 2023, and I’ll continue to monitor payments to ensure each county gets its fair share.”

Merkley called public lands a treasure in rural Oregon but added that they must not prevent communities from having the resources they need to pay for quality schools, emergency services and safe infrastructure.

“This federal investment is vital for Oregonian’s communities,” he said. “I will keep working to protect PILT payments so communities and families across Oregon have the stability they deserve.”

PILT payments are made for tax-exempt federal lands administered by federal bureaus including the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. 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.

Individual payments may vary from year to year because of changes in acreage data, which are updated annually by the federal agency administering the land; prior-year federal revenue-sharing payments reported annually by the governor of each state; and inflationary adjustments using the Consumer Price Index and population data, which are updated using information from the U.S. Census Bureau. Wyden and Merkley continue to monitor PILT payments closely and plan to advocate for fair payments for every county.