Payments will provide essential funding to support schools, roads, first responders, and crucial services in rural communities
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich announced that 32 counties across New Mexico will receive $40,268,203 through the Department of Interior’s (DOI) Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program. The PILT funding will be used by local governments across New Mexico to provide crucial services to residents, such as police, fire protection, emergency response, road maintenance, and more. A full list of funding by county is available below.
PILT provides federal payments to local governments to help offset losses in property taxes because of nontaxable federal land within their jurisdictions, including national parks and forests, wildlife refuges, and Bureau of Land Management land. New Mexico counties received payments for over 22 million acres of nontaxable federal land. The over $40 million for New Mexico funding was approved as part of $500 million included in the Department of Interior’s portion of the Fiscal Year 2019 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which was enacted into law in February with the support of Udall and Heinrich.
“PILT payments are a vital resource for rural communities across New Mexico, helping to support essential services like schools, roads, and public safety,” said Udall, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. “I’m proud to continue working to deliver these critical payments for New Mexico. But without permanent PILT funding, communities are often left wondering whether they will receive the payments they rely on – and are owed – to provide these basic services. Local governments deserve predictable funding and budget certainty in order to properly plan for the future. As a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, I’m committed to fighting for full, permanent PILT funding to make sure that New Mexico counties have the economic security and stability they need to thrive.”
“Rural communities rely on PILT payments to provide basic services to residents like road maintenance and public safety services,” said Heinrich. “I am glad that we fully funded PILT this year and these payments are being made on a timely basis, but we still must pass permanent, long-term funding so that rural counties have certainty when they are writing their budgets. I will continue to advocate for permanent funding for PILT and Secure Rural Schools program.”
The PILT program is administered by the Department of the Interior, which calculates annual payments to local governments based on the number of acres of federal entitlement land within each county and the population of that county. The lands include the National Forest and National Park Systems, lands in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Refuge System, and areas managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
The full list of New Mexico PILT payments for Fiscal Year 2019 is available below.
BERNALILLO COUNTY -- $221,040
CATRON COUNTY -- $668,680
CHAVES COUNTY -- $3,288,905
CIBOLA COUNTY -- $1,943,508
COLFAX COUNTY -- $171,761
DE BACA COUNTY -- $115,087
DONA ANA COUNTY -- $3,258,664
EDDY COUNTY -- $3,651,580
GRANT COUNTY -- $2,216,950
GUADALUPE COUNTY -- $168,101
HARDING COUNTY -- $124,430
HIDALGO COUNTY -- $726,660
LEA COUNTY -- $1,153,450
LINCOLN COUNTY -- $1,811,096
LOS ALAMOS COUNTY -- $92,880
LUNA COUNTY -- $2,042,926
MCKINLEY COUNTY -- $983,855
MORA COUNTY -- $278,093
OTERO COUNTY -- $3,410,392
QUAY COUNTY -- $4,954 1,811
RIO ARRIBA COUNTY -- $2,427,525
ROOSEVELT COUNTY -- $29,453
SAN JUAN COUNTY -- $2,368,930
SAN MIGUEL COUNTY -- $888,881
SANDOVAL COUNTY -- $2,330,950
SANTA FE COUNTY -- $793,795
SIERRA COUNTY -- $1,178,061
SOCORRO COUNTY -- $1,502,038
TAOS COUNTY -- $1,836,464
TORRANCE COUNTY -- $334,820
UNION COUNTY -- $159,796
VALENCIA COUNTY -- $84,478