Interior Department Announces $733 Million to Support Communities

The Department of the Interior today announced that more than 1,900 state and local governments across the country will receive a total of $733 million in Payments in Lieu of Taxes program funding for 2026. Because local governments cannot tax federal lands, these annual payments help defray the costs associated with maintaining important community services.

"The Trump administration does not just support local communities-we actively empower them. This funding directly fuels the essential services rural America relies on, from fortifying public safety to rebuilding infrastructure and strengthening education," said Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. "Local governments anchor our nation. We will remain relentless in our mission to bolster their economies and ensure they have the resources needed to serve their citizens."

Payments in Lieu of Taxes payments are made for tax-exempt federal lands administered by Interior's bureaus, including the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In addition, the payments cover federal lands administered by the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation Commission. Payments are calculated based on the number of acres of Federal land within each county or jurisdiction and the population of that area.

Since Payments in Lieu of Taxes payments began in 1977, Interior has distributed $13.4 billion to States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Interior collects $18.7 billion in revenue annually from commercial activities on public lands. A portion of those revenues is shared with States and counties. The balance is deposited into the U.S. Treasury, which in turn pays for a broad array of federal activities, including Payments in Lieu of Taxes payments.

Individual payments vary from year to year as a result of changes in acreage data, which are updated annually by the federal agency administering the land; prior-year Federal revenue-sharing payments reported annually by the governor of each state; and inflationary adjustments based on U.S. Census Bureau data.

A full list of funding by State and county is available on Interior's Payments in Lieu of Taxes page.