Polis Leads 100 House Colleagues in Bipartisan Letter to Protect PILT Colorado received $34.5 million in PILT funding in FY14

Press Release

Representative Jared Polis (CO-02) today led a bipartisan letter of 100 House colleagues to House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, urging the two leaders to secure full funding for the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program for fiscal year 2016 and beyond. The program will expire at the end of September unless it is reauthorized.

"Without the certainty of full funding for the PILT program, counties throughout our districts and across the nation will be unable to provide our constituents with essential services such as education, law enforcement, search and rescue, road maintenance and public health," the letter stated.

"We welcome this letter demonstrating overwhelming bipartisan support for the PILT program and the 62 percent of counties that have federal public lands within their boundaries," Matthew Chase, Executive Director of the National Association of Counties, said. "We will continue to work with House and Senate leaders to ensure full, long-term funding for the PILT program and the many essential county services to federal public lands that it supports."

The PILT program issues federal payments to local governments to help offset losses in property taxes due to nontaxable federal land within their jurisdictions. PILT payments help rural counties carry out vital services like firefighting, law enforcement and construction of public schools and roads.

Colorado received $34.5 million in PILT payments in FY 2014, with roughly $6 million going to the Second Congressional District.

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