Item M5BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY
Meeting Date: June 11, 2014
Bulk Item: Yes X No
Division: County Administrator
Department: County Administrator
Staff Contact /Phone #: Lisa Tennyson x 4444
AGENDA ITEM WORDING: Approval to add the issue of Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) to the
Monroe County 2014 Federal Legislative Agenda.
ITEM BACKGROUND:
To compensate for the approximate 450,000 acres of federally owned land for which the County cannot collect
property taxes, the PILT program provides approximately $1M to Monroe County, annually.
Historically, Congress provided PILT funding through annual appropriations, and funding levels were
sometimes less than the amount called for in the formula specified in the law, especially in the later years.
However, for the past five years (2008-2013) PILT payments were made part of mandatory spending, ie, the
full funding due to Counties was automatically appropriated each year. Unfortunately, this mandatory spending
feature of PILT, which provided budgetary certainty to the County, expired for FY 2014.
No longer mandatory, PILT 2014 funding was in jeopardy when it was dropped from this year's Omnibus
budget bill. Ultimately Congress appropriated PILT FY 2014 funding as part of the Farm Bill, passed in
January 2014. We will receive this payment in June.
FY 2015 PILT funding, is again subject to Congressional appropriation, is again uncertain. We will not know if
next year's PILT will be funded or for how much until Congress approves the appropriation, which will not be
until late summer/early fall, at the earliest.
As part of the discretionary appropriation process PILT is subject to the chopping block — reduced, eliminated,
traded away as part of other deals. As a mandatory spending line, the funding is certain, and does not have to
meet the offset requirement. (The program will cost about $425M next year.)
Securing FY 15 PILT funding and making future funding permanent and mandatory will need a legislative
vehicle, and continued advocacy. We are working very closely with Rep. Garcia and NACO on this issue, and
we now have a seat on NACO's public lands steering committee, the committee that focuses on PILT. Pending
BOCC approval, we will continue this advocacy.
PREVIOUS RELEVANT BOCC ACTION: The 2014 Federal Legislative agenda was approved in
November 2013.
CONTRACT/AGREEMENT CHANGES:
STAFF RECOMMENDATIONS: Approval
TOTAL COST: NA INDIRECT COST: BUDGETED: Yes No
COST TO COUNTY: NA SOURCE OF FUNDS:
REVENUE PRODUCING: Yes _ No AMOUNT PER MONTH Year
APPROVED BY: County Atty�f OMB/Purchasing Risk Management
DOCUMENTATION: Included
DISPOSITION:
Not Required
AGENDA ITEM #
DIVISION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR, LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS
To: Board of County Commissioners
Thru: Roman Gastesi, County Administrator
From: Lisa Tennyson, Legislative Affairs Director
Re: Payment in Lieu of Taxes Program
Date: May 20, 2014
PAYMENT IN LIEU OF TAXES PROGRAM
PILT payments are Federal payments to local governments to offset losses in property taxes and compensate for
the costs to support nontaxable Federal lands within their boundaries. The Act recognizes that the inability of
local governments to collect property taxes on Federally -owned land can create a financial impact.
FEDERALLY -OWNED LANDS COUNTED IN THE PILT PROGRAM
Defined by the PILT Act, entitlement land includes:
1. Lands in the National Park System;
2. National Wildlife Reserve Area lands that are withdrawn from the public domain and not acquired from
State or local governments.
Other types of entitlement land not relevant to us include:
3. Lands in the National Forest System
4. Lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management
5. Lands dedicated to the use of Federal water resources development projects
6. Dredge disposal areas maintained by Army Corps of Engineers
7. Land near the Purgatorie River Canyon, Colorado
8. Land on which are located semi -active or inactive army installation use for mobilization and for reserve
component training.
9. Federal lands acquired after December 30, 1970, as additions to lands in the National Park System or
National Forest Wilderness Areas
10. Federal lands in the Redwood National Park or lands acquired in the Lake Tahoe Basin near Lake
Tahoe under the Act of December 23, 1980
Monroe County's entitlement land consists mostly of National Park System land (450,000 acres- Everglades) and a
small amount of Wildlife Refuge Area land (about 2,600 acres).
PILT FUNDING COMPUTATION FORMULA
The Department of the Interior's (DOI) Office of the Secretary has administrative authority over the PILT
program. In addition to other responsibilities, DOI calculates the payments according to the formulas
established by law and distributes the funds.
The computation includes the amount of entitlement land (federal land that is eligible for PILT payment) within
each county, a set per acre dollar amount, population, and CPI 1. Payments are computed using the higher of
the following two alternatives:
• $2.54 (in FY 2013) times the number of acres of qualified Federal land in the county, reduced by the
amount of funds received by the county in the prior fiscal year under certain other Federal programs.
• S0.35 (in FY 2013) times the number of acres of qualified Federal land in the county, with no deduction
for prior -year payments.
MONROE COUNTY'S FY 2013 PILT PAYMENT
The print out attached shows the entitlement land acreage by Federal agency that was used in computing PILT
payments for FY 13 for the counties in the State of Florida. (This is the most recent information available.)
For FY 2013, Monroe County's authorized amount was $1,155,347, but we actually received $1,095,408. The
amount authorized for 2013 was reduced (5-6%) per sequestration required under the Budget Control Act of 2011
MONROE COUNTY'S FY 2014 PILT PAYMENT
We receive our annual PILT payment in June each year so we are not yet in receipt of FY 2014 PILT funds, but the
program was fully funded so we anticipate it to be approximately the same as last year.
MONROE COUNTY'S PILT FUNDING HISTORY
Monroe County PILT Funding History
FY 13:
$1,095,408
FY 12:
$1,122,390
FY It:
$1,099,616
FY 10:
$1,090,100
FY 09:
$1,063,244
FY 08:
$1,054,040
FY 07:
$ 664559
FY 06:
$ 667,079
FY 05:
$ 657,683
11 Fhe computation also adjusts the payment for the level of prior -year revenue payments and the amount that a county receives
under Sections 6904 and 6905 of the PILT Act (such as the National Forest Fund, the Taylor Grazing Act, the Mineral Leasing
Act, the Federal Power Act and the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self- Determination Act of 2000. .,things not relevant
for Monroe County.)
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