Kirkpatrick fights for rural counties, introduces bill to permanently fund critical PILT program

WASHINGTON – January 16, 2013 – (RealEstateRama) — U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz., today introduced legislation to permanently authorize the Payment-in-Lieu-of-Taxes (PILT) program, which is critical to rural counties that suffer losses in property taxes due to nontaxable federal land within their jurisdictions. PILT was not included in the FY14 Omnibus Funding bill.

The PILT program issues federal payments to local governments to help rural counties carry out vital services such as firefighting, law enforcement and construction of public schools and roads. Arizona received $32 million in PILT payments in FY 2013, with more than $13 million going to the First Congressional District.

“The PILT program is a critical piece of our county budgets, as most counties in my district and across Arizona include large amounts of federally owned land,” Kirkpatrick said. “We must permanently reauthorize PILT to give our county governments the stability they need to plan and budget for each fiscal year. We must act now – we cannot burden our counties with financial uncertainty.”