County Commissioners from Idaho Advocate at NACo’s Annual PILT Fly-In

Boundary County Commissioner Tim Bertling, Custer County Commissioner Will Nailon, Owyhee County Commissioner Cindy Bachman, and Twin Falls County Commissioner Don Hall along with IAC Executive Director Seth Grigg and IAC Policy Advisor Clay Boeckel joined county leaders from more than 40 public lands counties in 15 states last week for the annual National Association of Counties (NACo) Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) Fly-in. In meetings with intergovernmental partners at federal agencies and in Congress, participants advocated for full PILT funding and speedy reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) program, which together support critical infrastructure in America’s public lands counties.

Each year PILT payments are issued to over 1,850 counties in 49 states – roughly 62% of all counties. Each of Idaho’s 44 counties received a PILT payment in 2025, with payments to Idaho counties totaling nearly $43 million dollars. These resources offset lost property tax revenue from non-taxable federal public lands within county borders. The PILT program complements the SRS program, created in 2000 to offset rural counties’ revenue losses from declining federal timber harvests. In 2023, SRS delivered $232 million to roughly 700 counties nationwide. Thirty four counties in Idaho received over $25 million in SRS payments in 2023, but with SRS reauthorization now lapsed, Idaho’s SRS counties are facing severe budget shortfalls impacting county road maintenance, search and rescue, and wildfire mitigation, and rural school educational programs.

In addition to over 80 meetings with federal officials and congressional offices, county leaders in Washington for the fly-in participated in a forum on oil, gas and timber revenue sharing programs, hosted by NACo’s National Center for Public Lands Counties (NCPLC). The forum featured remarks by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, U.S. Representative Cliff Bentz, and speakers from the U.S. Department of the Interior.

A newly released primer on PILT and SRS is available here. For more information about county advocacy around PILT, click here. For more information about SRS, click here. For more information about the NCPLC, click here.