Northern Minnesota counties will receive a boost of nearly $9 million thanks to the 2023 Legislature.
The new funding is designed for counties with large public land holdings and is known as Payment in Lieu of Taxes, or PILT. It is intended to compensate counties for the loss of property taxes on the state’s vast acreage of public land in Northern Minnesota.
Northern counties are disproportionately dependent on PILT funding when compared to other regions of the state, according to a news release from the Nothern Counties Land Use Coordinating Board.
Due to the large acreage of public lands in these counties and the resulting lost tax base, PILT can account for 10-50% of a county’s revenue. These dollars offset county levies and help provide property tax relief, the release stated.
“An NCLUCB study revealed that there is a growing geographic disparity between the distribution of public lands and the distribution of PILT payments,” stated Pennington County Commissioner Neil Peterson, chair of the 10-county Northern Counties Land Use Coordinating Board, or NCLUCB.
The study found six counties — Aitkin, Beltrami, Itasca, Koochiching, Lake of the Woods and St. Louis — host 62% of the state’s public lands but receive about 39% of the total PILT payments.
“We are both pleased and grateful that the 2023 Legislature adopted our recommendations to reduce the statewide inequities in PILT reimbursements and increase funds to counties with disproportionately high levels of public lands,” Peterson stated.
St. Louis County Commissioner and NCLUCB Vice-Chair Paul McDonald saluted two northern legislators.
“We must acknowledge the leadership role of the two chief authors of this legislation: Senator Grant Hauschild and Representative David Lislegard,” McDonald stated. “They effectively articulated the fiscal necessity for increased public land payments to counties throughout the state generally, and for counties with large tracts of public lands most specifically.”
Commissioner Rich Sve, chair of the Lake County Board and NCLUCB past chair, reflected on the significance of the PILT reimbursement increases.
“County commissioners understand the environmental and recreational value of these large tracts of public lands as well as the costs required to sustain this remarkable resource,” Sve stated.
Sve said he served on the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources PILT Advisory Group in 2012, which first recognized counties with a disproportionate share of public lands should receive additional funding.
“It’s taken 10 years of focused work by NCLUCB counties and our Northern legislators, as well as organizations like the Association of Minnesota Counties, to achieve this funding goal,” he said.
To view the report, legislation and statewide county PILT distributions visit nclucb.org.
