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Show Garfield County To Receive $209,950 In Federal Funds Garfield County will receive 5209,950 as its portion of the 59,497,504 that Utah counties will receive from the Bureau of Land Management for Fiscal Year 1988 payments in lieu of taxes (PILT), according to figures released by Secretary of Interior Don Hodel. The annual payments are distributed dis-tributed to eligible units of local governments to offset fiscal impacts caused by the presence of certain tax-exempt lands within the local government's boundaries. The payment to Utah counties is part of $104,073,629 paid to nearly 2,000 local government units in accordance with the 1976 Payments in Lieu of Taxes Act. BLM administers the PILT program pro-gram because it is the largest single federal land-management agency. Nationally, BLM is responsible for more than 300 million acres of public lands, 22 million of which are in Utah. In making the announcement, Hodel said the payments are significant signif-icant to local governments, especially espe-cially in the nation's more sparsely populated counties that contain large acreages of federal lands. The payments help local governmental units provide fire and police protection, search and rescue operations, road construction and other services. The recipients may use the funds for any governmental purpose, he noted. PILT monies supplement revenue rev-enue the state receives form grazing leases, oil and gas leases, sales of minerals and timber and other products from public lands. Virtually Virtu-ally all revenue generated by BLM administered public lands is shared with state governments. |