Missoula County’s Chief Financial Officer Andrew Czorny was caught short on Thursday morning when asked about the annual Payment in Lieu of Taxes funds from the federal government.

"This is a little confusing to me right now,” said Czorny. “It looks like on a statewide basis, if I’m reading the federal numbers correctly, statewide last years we got just over $40 million, and this year we’re only received about $34 million, so I’m not sure why there’s such a big decrease. In Missoula County last year we received $2.3 million and this year we’re receiving only $1.98 million and that’s a reduction of about $316,000.”

Czorny said the payments are based on a per-acreage charge that the federal government pays to forested counties for the federal lands that are not taxed, thus the term 'payment in lieu of taxes'.

“On a per acre basis last year we received $2.64 and this year we’re receiving only $2.27 per acre,” he said. “We added over 1,000 acres of new federal land, so it’s very confusing to me why we’re getting less money.”

Czorny has cause to be concerned. He said the reduction in funds will affect all areas of county government.

“We use it for general government purposes to support everything from the justice courts to the county attorneys, treasurer and financial services, facilities management, 9-1-1, all the general government functions are funded by these PILT payments,” he said. “Everybody gets less money across the board, and we’ll have to figure out how to deal with that.”

Czorny said that he would have to dig deep and ‘look for some answers’.

Following is a list of PILT monies to Montana counties.

 

List of funding by county:

ANACONDA DEER LODGE COUNTY$486,305
BEAVERHEAD COUNTY$799,768
BIG HORN COUNTY$16,147
BLAINE COUNTY$1,073,951
BROADWATER COUNTY$690,604
CARBON COUNTY$1,220,961
CARTER COUNTY$227,802
CASCADE COUNTY$506,790
CHOUTEAU COUNTY$389,785
CUSTER COUNTY$897,155
DANIELS COUNTY$0
DAWSON COUNTY$35,597
FALLON COUNTY$45,166
FERGUS COUNTY$1,274,174
FLATHEAD COUNTY$2,844,552
GALLATIN COUNTY$1,820,330
GARFIELD COUNTY$241,038
GLACIER COUNTY$1,084,069
GOLDEN VALLEY COUNTY$78,992
GRANITE COUNTY$273,856
HILL COUNTY$126,663
JEFFERSON COUNTY$1,244,905
JUDITH BASIN COUNTY$272,173
LAKE COUNTY$454,404
LEWIS & CLARK COUNTY$2,605,277
LIBERTY COUNTY$87,178
LINCOLN COUNTY$680,555
MADISON COUNTY$966,740
MCCONE COUNTY$314,296
MEAGHER COUNTY$189,886
MINERAL COUNTY$250,251
MISSOULA COUNTY$1,987,020
MUSSELSHELL COUNTY$212,589
PARK COUNTY$1,469,004
PETROLEUM COUNTY$97,496
PHILLIPS COUNTY$536,765
PONDERA COUNTY$237,420
POWDER RIVER COUNTY$231,405
POWELL COUNTY$743,674
PRAIRIE COUNTY$167,372
RAVALLI COUNTY$2,537,051
RICHLAND COUNTY$21,124
ROOSEVELT COUNTY$1,670
ROSEBUD COUNTY$126,962
SANDERS COUNTY$544,846
SHERIDAN COUNTY$694
SILVER BOW CENSUS CITY$580,639
STILLWATER COUNTY$471,808
SWEET GRASS COUNTY$584,106
TETON COUNTY$694,609
TOOLE COUNTY$91,174
TREASURE COUNTY$292
VALLEY COUNTY$1,095,683
WHEATLAND COUNTY$136,665
WIBAUX COUNTY$10,520
YELLOWSTONE COUNTY$210,246

 

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