Nevada counties will get almost $28 million to offset non-taxable federal land

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., announced Tuesday the federal Department of the Interior has awarded Nevada counties a total of $27.87 million through the Payments In Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program.

PILT provides compensation to local governments that have large percentages of federal land within their borders. Those percentages in some Nevada counties are higher than 90 percent and are exempt from state and local property taxes.

The result is a lack of local revenue to support a long list of local services. The money pays for firefighting and police protection, school and road construction, and other services.

Masto said the payments are made to compensate for non-taxable lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service as well as the U.S. Forest Service and Department of Agriculture as well as military installations.

The largest awards went to Clark, Washoe, Elko and Nye counties. The smallest to Carson City and Storey County.

Washoe was on top at $3.77 million followed by Clark at $3.7 million and Elko at $3.69 million. Nye will receive $3.4 million.

Storey will get just $40,910 for the 14,474 acres of federal land there.

Carson City’s 42,805 acres — mostly in the east slope of the Sierra and Tahoe Basin — qualifies for $117,542 for this federal fiscal year.

In part because of the large swath of land controlled by the Fallon Naval Air Station, Churchill County will receive $2.39 million.

Lyon County’s share of the pot comes to $2.3 million. Douglas County, which is largely non-federal land outside the Tahoe Basin, will receive $718,132.