This is an update of University of Nevada, Reno Extension Fact Sheet FS-21-107 covering PILT payments in the Western United States for 2020 (Chicola and Harris, 2021). This fact sheet will look at Western States PILT payments for 2024 and the trend in entitlement acreage, PILT payments, and PILT payments per entitlement acreage for Western U.S states from 2020 to 2024.

Almost one-third of total U.S. acreage is federal lands, with the largest percentage in the thirteen Western states1. Approximately 93.28% of all federally administered acreage in 2024 was located within these states Because of the vast quantities of public lands in the West, the management of these public lands impacts county economies and local government fiscal balances.

Since public lands are administered by the federal and/or state government, these lands are not subject to local government taxation. To compensate for this, Congress passed Public Law 94-565 in 1976, establishing the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program. The act has been revised several times. In 1982, it was amended and codified as Chapter 69, 31 U.S.C. In 1983, it was amended to clarify the definition of “unit of general local government” and authorized state governments to redistribute payments to smaller units of government through legislation. The most recent change came with a 1994 act that increased payments to each county. Due to its role as the largest federal land management agency, the Bureau of Land Management was chosen by the Secretary of the Interior to administer the PILT program.

Although all fifty states plus the District of Columbia, Guam, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico are eligible to receive federal land-based payments, Western states receive the majority due to greater percentages of Federal land ownership. Table 1 shows the thirteen Western states received $423,482,052 of the $514,684,460 in PILT awarded, which accounts for 81.51% of total PILT payments made in 2024.

Table 1 shows that the state of Nevada had the second largest amount of entitlement acreage with 56,564,438 acres. However, the state received only $32,886,305 in PILT, which ranks Nevada 10th highest in the nation in PILT payments. Nevada PILT payments amounted to $0.58 per entitled acre. Only Alaska had a smaller PILT payment per entitlement acre at $0.17. 

In 2024, the Western states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming received larger PILT payments than Nevada. Only the state of Alaska has a greater entitlement acreage than Nevada. Also, only the Western states of Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington had lower PILT payments than Nevada. 

California received the largest Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) in 2024, totaling $64.3 million, or 
$1.47 per entitlement acre. Although California has approximately 12.8 million fewer entitlement acres than Nevada, it received about $31.4 million more in PILT payments. The disparity in payments among states is due to differences in the number of counties; for instance, Nevada has only 17 counties, while California has 58. Since PILT payments are made to counties, states with more counties receive higher total payments (Zimmerman and Harris, 2000). While the new PILT formula has provided more overall revenue, it has caused little change in entitlement acreage, total payments, and payments per entitlement acre. 

For more information, click on the printable version below.

Published by: T. Harris, 2022, State Comparison of Payment in Lieu of Taxes for 2024, Extension, University of Nevada, Reno, FS-211-107

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