Colorado county governments received about $24 million in federal payments-in-lieu of taxes, or PILT, last year, but Rep. Scott Tipton is asking the Department of Interior to revise a legal opinion so that those counties may get an additional $4.3 million that is linked to mineral lease payments. Tipton, the Republican who represents Pueblo within the 3rd Congressional District, sent a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar last week, urging him to recognize newly created federal mineral lease districts as separate from county governments. If Interior will do that, according to Tipton, counties will be able to receive their full PILT payment as well as federal mineral royalties. It's not a major issue along the Front Range counties, but in Western Slope counties where there is significant oil and gas leasing, those counties have had their federal mineral lease payments deducted from the annual PILT money they receive on federal property within their borders...
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1 comment:
The federal government is years behind in their PILT payments to all counties and probably will never catch up.
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