The Jefferson County Commission moved to donate $5,000 from the county’s Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) fund to recovery efforts in Denton following a fire that devastated the central Montana town in early December.
Jefferson County’s PILT fund has accumulated about $1.35 million, according to a document provided by Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder Ginger Kunz.
PILT funds are federal funds directed to local governments in jurisdictions containing public lands to “help offset the loss of property taxes for the nontaxable federal land in their boundaries,” according to the U.S. Department of Infrastructure’s website. Jefferson County has 556,268 acres of public land, roughly 52% of its total 1,062,038 acres, according to a Jefferson County Noxious Weed Management Plan published in 2016.
