07.16.13

Clallam and Jefferson receive federal dollars

By:  KONP - Staff Writer
Source: KONP

(Port Angeles) -- A windfall of just over 800-thousand dollars will greatly help Clallam County's financial picture.

County Administrator Jim Jones says Clallam and Jefferson counties have received a combined 2.08-million dollars, from a federal program that reimburses rural counties for the presence of non-taxable federal lands.

   The 800-thousand dollars received by Clallam County comes as Payment in Lieu of Taxes, or PILT, and is more than double the amount it budgeted earlier, and a big jump from the nearly $489-thousand it got last year.

   Jones said the money is coming at a great time, because so far, the sales tax and real estate excise taxes and investment interest aren't coming in quite as high as hoped. 

Mandatory full funding of the program is set to expire at the end of this year, unless it is re-authorized by Congress, and Senator Maria Cantwell says she will work to keep the program alive.