A bipartisan group of senators, including Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, has sent a letter requesting full funding of the Payments In Lieu of Taxes Program in the fiscal year 2023 appropriations bill.

PILT payments are federal payments to counties that have nontaxable federal land. It helps counties offset the costs associated with maintaining the services on those lands. Because counties with federal land cannot collect property taxes from the federal government, it benefits rural areas that may be more saturated with federal land than other areas.

The letter was written by Bennet and Sen. Mike Crapo and signed by 30 senators. It was sent to Sens. Patrick Leahy and Richard Shelby, who serve as chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The federal government owns more than 36% of all land in Colorado, or about 24 million acres out of 66.5 million total acres. Additionally, Colorado ranks 11th in the nation for federal land ownership.

“PILT funding is critical for communities in Colorado and across the country that use these funds for essential services,” a news release from Bennet’s office said. According to the release, PILT pays for resources in 1,900 counties in 49 states, and the payments have been used to fund services such as law enforcement and emergency responses.

In La Plata County, a little more than $1 million was received in PILT funding for 2021, which was used for a road and bridge paving project on a county road, said county Manager Chuck Stevens.

For fiscal year 2021, Colorado received more than $43 million in PILT payments, the second-highest of any state, coming in behind only California, which received more than $55 million. Fully funding PILT payments would also help with the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in areas where there may have previously been budget cuts.

A significant project from the past few years funded by PILT money that Stevens highlighted was the completion of a new search and rescue station in La Plata County in 2020. The county uses previous years to estimate how much money it may need, but without the money, new projects will be negatively impacted, he said.

Stevens said if PILT weren’t fully funded, it would create some uncertainty for local needs.

“Even though we are conservative in our estimates year after year, that’s one thing that we count on, money that we rely on in order to provide services to our citizens,” he said. “So yeah, if funding were to go away, absolutely it would have an impact on the county.

Stevens said reauthorizing PILT is important in maintaining critical infrastructure in the county while being intentional with taxpayer money. The biggest area of need right now that the funding would be used for if it is fully funded by Congress is repairing and maintaining county roads, he said.

“We are very mindful of every single penny of taxpayer dollars that comes into the county as revenue and we make every effort to ensure that we’re getting the most value for our money, taxpayers’ money, and that we’re providing the services that the residents of La Plata County expect and deserve from their county government,” Stevens said.

Nina Heller is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at nheller@durangoherald.com.