Box Elder County could stand to gain a significant increase in revenue for government-owned lands within its borders thanks to a proposed bill supported by the Western Counties Alliance and Representative Rob Bishop.

At last week’s County Commission meeting, the Alliance introduced a discussion draft of legislation that would change the way Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILT) from the government is distributed. According to their website, PILT money is funding that helps offset the loss of tax revenue counties face due to federally owned land within their borders.

As it stands, Box Elder County gets the largest amount of PILT money in the state. This money is put into the municipal services to fund items such as community development, the fire department and roads and highways.

Currently, $376 million is appropriated nationally for PILT money. This new program would raise that cost to $1.2 billion. In order to fund it, other public land payments made to the counties would be repealed and put into one fund to pay for the new PILT program. Alliance Executive Director Mark Walsh said they might need more money out of the general fund, as well. This bill would make PILT a permanent program that would no longer be subject to appropriations.

“We’re confident there will be sufficient money available to meet the demands of this formula,” Walsh said. “I think that it will be an equal offset.”

Walsh said there are two reasons the PILT formula needs to be changed. First, the formula is very hard to understand. This new formula would help the counties understand exactly how the money is calculated.

The second reason is to attempt to deal more fairly with counties that have large amounts of government owned lands and very low populations. While this bill takes the county’s population out of consideration, at a minimum of $10 per acre, Box Elder County would get significantly more than the $2.53 per acre it’s getting now.

The value this bill would put on different categories of lands is as follows:

Wilderness $20/acre

Nat’l Landscape Cons. $18/acre

Forest Service Lands $15/acre

Fish & Wildlife Lands $15/acre

Park Services Lands $15/acre

BLM Lands $10/acre

“Bottom line, this makes the formula more easily understood because it clears up various elements of formula and pays based upon values,” Walsh said.

With certain types of lands having a predetermined value per acre, Walsh said it would also make Congress more careful when designating federal lands. Right now, Walsh said congress is “willy-nilly” when identifying land as wilderness or national parks, and they hope this will make Congress more accountable for what they’re doing.

While many western congressmen have been supportive of the proposed legislation, Walsh said Rep. Bishop has been at the forefront.

“We strongly support what he (Bishop) is doing here,” Walsh said. “We hope this bill can pass because it is the right thing to do.”

Walsh asked that the commissioners review the draft and give him any suggestions or concerns they have as soon as possible. According to a letter submitted to the commissioners, Western Counties Alliance hopes to introduce this legislation within the next couple of weeks.