Brief by Central Staff
Public Land – December 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine
We often hear various rural county commissioners complain about the federal government, but we haven’t heard of any county government that doesn’t cash the federal PILT checks.
PILT is an acronym for Payment In Lieu of Taxes. Governments can’t tax other governments, and so federal land is exempt from local property taxes. But county governments still incur costs when they serve public lands with law enforcement, search and rescue, and the like.