Flathead County has received a $2.17 million payment from the federal government under a program that compensates local governments for nontaxable federal land.

The annual allocation pushes the county’s payments-in-lieu-of-taxes fund to $4,653,467, which is $93,700 more than the county had projected given concerns about federal sequestration, County Administrator Mike Pence said.

“Efforts are continuing to provide a longer funding commitment for PILT (payments-in-lieu-of-taxes) and I think there is a good chance that will happen,” Pence said. “Our congressional delegation is very supportive of a multiyear commitment.”

Flathead County was one of about 1,900 local governments throughout the country that received a total of $399.8 million. Although the federal payments were cut by about $21.5 million due to sequestration, Flathead’s payment was not affected, Pence said.

“We’ve consistently been getting in excess of $2 million the last four to five years,” he said. “When I came here [eight years ago] we were getting about $1.3 million a year. Then they changed the formula for allocations and we were a big winner in that.”

Some 72 percent — or 2.4 million acres of the 3.36 million acres of land in Flathead County — is federally owned.

Since the county has covered all of its budgeted expenditures for fiscal year 2013, which ends June 30, the county can make a game plan for how to spend in the coming budget year and beyond.

There are some specific plans about how to divvy up the money.

Each year the county earmarks $500,000 of the payments-in-lieu money to the road department.

In the coming fiscal year that begins July 1, the county plans to use $500,000 to purchase the State Farm Insurance building for future county campus expansion along South Main Street. Another $163,000 will pay for two metal buildings to consolidate maintenance needs at the Parks and Recreation Department.

Payments-in-lieu money will be used for a $1.5 million renovation of the old Flathead County Jail building in the 2015 fiscal year, and $500,000 is being set aside to help pay for a new Agency on Aging facility.

The money has been put to good use for past building projects, too, Pence said. The $2.6 million courthouse renovation was done largely with payments-in-lieu funds, as was a restoration of the former Blue Building now called Courthouse West. A parking lot next to the Earl Bennett Building also was paid for with payments-in-lieu money.

The county undertook a $4 million energy improvement project that installed a new heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system at the Justice Center and made energy-efficiency upgrades in most of the county’s other buildings. Payments-in-lieu money is being used to service the debt on a 20-year energy performance contract, Pence said.

In Montana, only Lewis and Clark County got more federal PILT money than Flathead this year; it received $2.18 million. Other counties receiving more than $1 million included Missoula, Fergus, Gallatin, Park and Ravalli counties.

States receiving the biggest payments-in-lieu allocations, in order, were California, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming and Nevada.

Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced last week that President Obama has proposed to fully fund the program in fiscal year 2014, and noted Congress is being encouraged to “take the required action to make sure this important program continues.”

Jurisdictions receiving the money provide significant support for nontaxable federal lands such as national parks, wildlife refuges and recreation areas, Jewell pointed out.

The Interior Department collects about $14 billion in revenue annually from commercial activities on federal lands, such as oil and gas leasing, livestock grazing and timber harvesting.

The funding formula computes payments based on the number of acres of federal entitlement land within each county or jurisdiction and the population of each jurisdiction.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.