Senator Daines on PILT Parity and Restoring Mineral Revenues for Counties

Addressing PILT Program Disadvantages

• 💡 Senator Daines introduced the bipartisan Small County PILT Parity Act to address disadvantages faced by rural counties.
• 🎯 The current PILT formula unfairly caps payments for counties with populations under 5,000, limiting their revenue streams for essential services like emergency response and public safety.
• 🔑 The proposed act would expand the PILT calculation table to include population tiers down to 1,000 people, ensuring fair compensation for counties with large geographical areas but low populations.
• ✅ This expansion aims to provide parity without reducing payments to larger counties, acknowledging that western counties are often measured by square miles rather than per capita.

Restoring State Mineral Revenues Act

• 🚀 Senator Daines also discussed the Restoring State Mineral Revenues Act, aimed at correcting a "classic DC bureaucracy" practice.
• 💰 Under the Mineral Leasing Act, revenues from oil and gas development on federal lands are split 50/50 between federal and state/local governments.
• ⚠️ However, the federal government charges states a 2% administrative fee on their share, effectively reducing the revenue returned to the affected states and counties.
• 📈 This bill seeks to eliminate the 2% fee, ensuring a true 50/50 split and returning the full revenue to the counties where the development occurs.
• 🤝 Both bills have strong bipartisan support and have passed the committee multiple times, with the goal of making counties whole again.