Montana counties will receive $46.5 million in federal money this year to make up for a lack of property tax revenue from federal lands.

In Northwest Montana, Lincoln County is slated to receive $872,636 for its 1.7 million acres of federal land. That’s nearly $140,000 more than it got four years ago.

Last year, Lincoln got $837,713. In 2023, it received $785,316 and in 2022, it received $732,936. In 2021, the county got $715,467.

According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, Flathead County received $4 million this year for its 2.4 million acres of federal land. Lake County’s cut was $574,134 (174,976 acres), Mineral County received $634,430 (642,126 acres), Sanders County got $1.1 million (917,225) and Glacier County got $1.3 million (401,839 acres).

The Department of the Interior announced in June that more than 1,900 state and local governments across the country will receive a total of $644.8 million in Payments in Lieu of Taxes program funding for 2025. According to the Montana Association of Counties, it’s the largest state payment in the program’s history, a 7.5% increase over 2024.

Because local governments cannot tax federal lands, the annual payments help defray the costs associated with maintaining important community services. 

The payments are made for tax-exempt federal lands administered by Interior’s bureaus, including the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, National Park Service, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 

In addition, the payments cover federal lands administered by the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation Commission. Payments are calculated based on the number of acres of federal land within each county or jurisdiction, and the population of that area. 

“The Trump administration is committed to empowering local communities and ensuring that the federal government is a strong partner, not an obstacle,” said Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. “PILT payments support vital services that help rural counties and towns thrive, from public safety to infrastructure and education. We recognize that local governments are the backbone of our nation and we will continue working to support their efforts to grow local economies and serve their citizens.” 

Since PILT payments began in 1977, the Department has distributed more than $12.6 billion to states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

The Department collects more than $20.7 billion in revenue annually from commercial activities on public lands. A portion of those revenues is shared with states and counties. The balance is deposited into the U.S. Treasury, which in turn pays for a broad array of federal activities, including PILT payments. 

Individual payments may vary from year to year as a result of changes in acreage data, which are updated annually by the federal agency administering the land; prior-year federal revenue-sharing payments reported annually by the governor of each state; and inflationary adjustments based on U.S. Census Bureau data.