Federal budget agreement could cost rural counties millions in funding

The Union County Board of Commissioners says that the recent Ryan-Murray federal budget agreement could cost rural counties millions in funding.  

The House version of the federal budget references a program that reimburses counties for federal land but does not specifically fund it, the county board said in a December news release.

The Payment In Lieu of Taxes program, PILT, is a reimbursement to counties that contain federal land. Since federal land is tax exempt, PILT helps to cover uncollected revenue, given that such land would otherwise be private and generating property tax or other taxes.  

As a result, eliminating this program would disproportionately affect rural counties, such as those in Southern Illinois.

Union, Jackson and Pope counties each contain considerable amounts of federal land.  In 2013, they received PILT payments of $85,923, $113,219 and $215,520, respectively.  Illinois counties received a total of $1,119,970 in 2013, county officials said.

In Section 213 of the House version of the federal budget, PILT is listed as a “deficit-neutral reserve fund for investments in our nation's counties and schools.” This means that the program will only exist on paper unless money is specifically appropriated for it.

If the federal government is going to retain federal lands within counties, the Union County Board of Commissioners contends that it is obligated to pay for them.