Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski’s office announced last week the state will be receiving $26.2 million from Department of the Interior through the Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program.
Twenty-nine municipalities have been chosen for PILT payments, based in part on federally-managed acreages within their jurisdictions. With 1.6 million acres, the City and Borough of Wrangell will receive $379,944 this year through the program; with 1.8 million acres, Petersburg will receive $596,631.
PILT provides monetary compensation to local governments containing lands managed by the National Forests, Bureau of Land Management, National Parks and other federal agencies. For 2015 the program will distribute $404.6 million nationwide to approximately 1,900 local jurisdictions.
An additional $37 million may be made available by the National Defense Authorization Act after October 1. If the 2016 Interior Appropriations bill is enacted, payments would be issued to counties as a supplemental check through a provision included by Murkowski, who chairs the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
“With the federal government managing more than 60 percent of the land within Alaska’s borders, we know well the importance of PILT,” Murkowski said in a release. Funds from the program go to fund schools and roads, and support emergency services such as firefighting, search-and-rescue and law enforcement.
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