05/26/05 PILT, drought and a trade mission

05/26/05 PILT, drought and a trade mission

The US House has approved 242 million dollars in PILT money. PILT is payment in lieu of taxes where the Interior Department gives counties money to make up for property taxes they can't collect on federal lands within their borders. That's a 12 million dollar increase in payments and for Idaho it could mean more than 16 million dollars for the counties. If the Senate goes along with the House version it will be an additional 800 thousand dollars in PILT funds for Idaho in the next fiscal year. Acting Governor Jim Risch added five more counties to the drought emergency list. Caribou, Blaine, Jefferson, Gooding and Lemhi bring to 17 the total number of county declarations this year with a certainty that the number will go higher. Governor Dirk Kempthorne and a trade delegation will wind up a two week Asian mission on Friday. Governor Kempthorne said that Idaho exports for the first quarter of this year were 810 million dollars, the best quarterly number in more than four years and the third best export quarter in the state's history. With 108 million dollars in goods shipped to China that nation is now Idaho's third largest trading partner but expanding agricultural imports is one of the trade delegation's main goals. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott
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