County to get $2.2 million in federal funding

By JIM MANN / The Daily Inter Lake

A federal compensation program for counties will be fully funded this year for the first time since 1994, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., has announced.

Montana counties will receive $27 million for the 2008 fiscal year through the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program.

Since 1994, payments have been only 41 percent to 77 percent of that amount.

Baucus said he wrote and helped pass a provision this year making full funding for the program mandatory for the next four years.

Last year, Flathead County received $1,354,704 from the program and this year it will get $2,162,372.

"We're relieved to have it funded at all, and of course to have it funded it at the full amount is a huge relief," Flathead County Commissioner Joe Brenneman said.

A press release from Baucus' office said the Department of Interior has distributed a total of $138 million in payments to 2,200 counties and local governments. The program was created after the establishment of national parks and national forests as compensation for counties that could no longer levy taxes on those lands.

The money is in addition to an estimated $111 million that will be distributed to Montana counties under the Secure Rural Schools program.

"This is truly fantastic news," Baucus said of the PILT funding. "$27 million will go a long way to making sure Montanans have access to the services they need. I fought like the dickens to make sure PILT was fully funded because I know how important these dollars are to our rural communities."