Nye County – an advocate for key federal funding programs
Nye County has more than 11.6 million acres to its name and is the third largest county in the United States – but of that total, around 90% is federally owned and managed by agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife, the U.S Dept. of Defense or the National Park Service. That means of the thousands of square miles in Nye County, only about 10% is privately owned and therefore, subject to a key revenue source of local government entities: property taxes.
That’s why programs such as Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) and Secure Rural Schools (SRS) are such an important resource for counties like Nye, where public lands are tax-exempt.
Established in 1976, PILT provides a small allocation per acre to offset the loss in property taxes resulting from public lands, funding that has been a historic part of government operations in over 1,900 counties around the country. As to the SRS program, Congress enacted this in 2000 as a result of declining timber production, bridging the gap for forested counties that were no longer receiving the same revenue-sharing payments from the Forest Service or BLM that they had previously.
With the future of both of these programs in the hands of Congress, the National Association of Counties (NACo) is lobbying U.S. lawmakers to not only permanently reauthorize each, but to fully fund PILT, as well.
“Counties are mandated to provide services with growing demands, yet PILT and SRS face appropriations challenges in Congress. Permanent reauthorization and full funding of PILT and the reauthorization of SRS are essential to ensure predictable funding for counties impacted by public lands,” NACo asserts in a primer on the two federal funding programs. “Counties with non-taxable public lands play a vital role in delivering essential services and stewarding nationally significant landscapes. To sustain these responsibilities, a modernized, permanently authorized and inflation-adjusted framework for federal revenue sharing and compensation is necessary.”
The United States Senate has already passed a bill reauthorizing the SRS program, an action taken by unanimous vote in June of this year. Now the bill awaits passage in the U.S. House of Representatives. As for PILT, NACo is advocating for Congress to provide a full allocation of funding to the program for fiscal year 2026 and representatives from a variety of stakeholders recently traveled to the Capitol to speak on the issue, Nye County Commission Vice Chair Debra Strickland among them.
“Commissioner Strickland was in Washington, D.C. last week to meet with over 80 federal partners and discuss the critical role of the Payment in Lieu of Taxes and Secure Rural Schools programs,” Nye County Public Communications Manager Arnold Knightly told the Pahrump Valley Times on Sept. 15. “With more than 85% of Nevada’s land federally owned, these programs are essential for counties like Nye County that deliver vital services across public lands. Her participation underscores the county’s commitment to securing sustainable funding for rural communities.”
Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com
