Interior Department to pay $64.3 million to California to support vital services in communities

The Department of the Interior on Wednesday announced that 57 local governments in California will receive a total of $64.3 million in payments in lieu of taxes, or 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.

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

In addition, PILT payments cover federal lands administered by the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation Commission.

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.

Lake County will receive $1,063,125 for 386,108 acres, the agency said.

“The Biden-Harris administration is committed to boosting local communities,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget Joan Mooney. “PILT payments help local governments carry out vital services, such as firefighting and police protection, construction of public schools and roads, and search-and-rescue operations. We are grateful for our ongoing partnerships with local jurisdictions across the country who help the Interior Department fulfill our mission on behalf of the American public.”

Since PILT payments began in 1977, the Department has distributed nearly $12 billion to states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The department collects more than $22.2 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.

Individual payments may vary from year to year as a result 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.

A full list of funding by state and county is below.

COUNTY                                        PAYMENT        TOTAL ACRES

ALAMEDA COUNTY                       $2,772              828
ALPINE COUNTY                           $206,377          430,224
AMADOR COUNTY                        $130,357          90,043
BUTTE COUNTY                            $324,076          155,478
CALAVERAS COUNTY                   $371,829          138,421
COLUSA COUNTY                          $292,192          107,513
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY            $7,801               2,330
DEL NORTE COUNTY                    $910,205          447,575
EL DORADO COUNTY                    $928,457          545,224
FRESNO COUNTY                          $3,862,295       1,528,892
GLENN COUNTY                             $572,162          228,518
HUMBOLDT COUNTY                     $1,175,005       496,288
IMPERIAL COUNTY                        $3,808,098       1,137,466
INYO COUNTY                                $2,411,949       5,523,634
KERN COUNTY                               $3,525,809      1,085,139
KINGS COUNTY                              $29,389            9,047
LAKE COUNTY                                $1,063,125       386,108
LASSEN COUNTY                           $2,474,703       1,670,374
LOS ANGELES COUNTY                $1,653,049        693,047
MADERA COUNTY                          $1,430,611        504,326
MARIN COUNTY                              $264,068           78,876
MARIPOSA COUNTY                       $1,546,043        514,779
MENDOCINO COUNTY                    $883,960           311,048
MERCED COUNTY                           $118,925           35,536
MODOC COUNTY                             $837,067          1,744,996
MONO COUNTY                                $1,501,009       1,749,662
MONTEREY COUNTY                       $1,143,504       344,113
NAPA COUNTY                                  $202,369          60,471
NEVADA COUNTY                             $536,373           222,020
ORANGE COUNTY                            $157,550           55,813
PLACER COUNTY                             $1,006,946        406,277
PLUMAS COUNTY                             $733,808          1,179,249
RIVERSIDE COUNTY                        $4,289,443        2,348,603
SACRAMENTO COUNTY                  $32,217             9,623
SAN BENITO COUNTY                      $342,451           103,336
SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY            $4,140,532        8,470,157
SAN DIEGO COUNTY                        $1,449,345         479,172
SAN FRANCISCO                               $7,891                2,357
SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY                    $7,489                2,237
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY              $1,458,930        440,946
SAN MATEO COUNTY                        $20,780             6,207
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY               $2,351,593        716,652
SANTA CLARA COUNTY                     $6,009              1,795
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY                       $19,562            5,843
SHASTA COUNTY                                $2,381,961       988,681
SIERRA COUNTY                                 $297,216          435,461
SISKIYOU COUNTY                             $2,089,464        2,502,827
SOLANO COUNTY                               $19,277             5,758
SONOMA COUNTY                               $81,380            24,308
STANISLAUS COUNTY                        $10,996            3,287
SUTTER COUNTY                                $0                     2
TEHAMA COUNTY                               $940,924           446,637
TRINITY COUNTY                                $750,951          1,565,472
TULARE COUNTY                                $4,251,368       1,530,762
TUOLUMNE COUNTY                          $3,129,191       1,093,922
VENTURA COUNTY                              $1,907,537       582,758
YOLO COUNTY                                     $104,373          31,180
YUBA COUNTY                                      $98,645           48,627

TOTAL:                                                    $64,301,408    43,729,925