U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, today welcomed the announcement that Alaska municipalities will receive $26.2 million from the Department of the Interior as compensation for federal lands within their jurisdictions. Approximately 1,900 local jurisdictions received a total of $404.6 million in PILT payments this year.

“With the federal government managing more than 60 percent of the land within Alaska’s borders, we know well the importance of PILT,” Murkowski said. “These funds are essential to providing vital emergency services like fire-fighting, police protection, and search-and-rescue operations to communities with federal lands located in their jurisdictions.”

The Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program provides monetary compensation to local governments that contain National Forests, Bureau of Land Management public lands, National Parks and other lands dedicated to water resource development projects. The revenue helps local governments provide vital services, such as firefighting and police protection, construction of public schools and roads, and search-and-rescue operations.

An additional $37 million made available for PILT after October 1, 2015, by the NDAA, would be issued to counties as a supplemental check through a provision included by Murkowski in the 2016 Interior Appropriations bill, that if enacted, would provide full funding at the authorized level for FY2015.