Local counties receive more than $1.3 million

Published 4:00 am Saturday, October 3, 2026

More than $1.3M came into local counties from the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Those PILT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) funds were a part of the $10.6M of funds that were released to all 75 Arkansas counties.

PILT funds are paid to counties because local governments can’t tax federal lands. These funds help defray the cost associated with infrastructure for these pieces of property.

There are 13,773 acres of Federal land in Boone County. The country received $48,858 in PILT funding.

The county with the largest amount of federal land in the Heart of the Ozarks is Newton County. There are 237,073 belonging to the Federal agencies.

Newton County received $771,663. That was the fourth largest payout in Arkansas.

Scott County was paid $1.23M, Montgomery County received $1.2M and Yell County received $811,595.

Marion County received a check of $264,708 for its 74,952 acres that are used by the Federal Government.

Searcy County received $186,425 for the 55,708 acres and Carroll County was paid $29,546 for the 8,329 acres of Federal land.

PILT payments are made for tax-exempt federal lands that are under the control of the Department of the Interior.

The Department of Interior collects $18.7B annually from recreational and business uses of the land. A portion of those revenues are shared with states and counties.

There are 13 counties in Arkansas that do not contain any Federal land. Calhoun County has 10 Federal acres and Crittenden County has two acres.