YourVoice.Now Summary
Three Minnesota counties' yearly federal payment would not fall when land values drop — past appraisals would count.
The details
Most people would see no change in daily life. If you live in Cook, Lake, or Saint Louis County in Minnesota, this touches your county's budget. The federal government owns wilderness land in those three counties. Counties cannot charge property tax on federal land. To make up for that, a 1948 law sends them a payment each year. That payment is three-quarters of one percent of what the land is worth. A federal appraisal sets the value every ten years, and the payment moves with it. The bill would switch to the highest value ever appraised. Past appraisals would count toward that figure. So when a new appraisal comes in lower, the payment would hold steady rather than fall.
Congressional Summary
This bill prevents decreases in annual payments provided to Cook, Lake, and Saint Louis Counties in Minnesota for national forest lands in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Specifically, the bill modifies the formula created under the Thye-Blatnik Act that the Department of the Treasury uses to determine the amount of the payments. Treasury must base the payments on the highest fair appraised value, including historical fair appraised values, rather than on the fair appraised value of the land.
Legislative Subjects
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- Senate
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Reported to Senate
- Action Date
- 2025-10-27
- Date Added
- 2026-07-23
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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