By Melissa Davlin, Idaho Reports

The Department of the Interior announced Thursday that Idaho will receive $35.8 million for untaxable land owned by the federal government. Because of the way those payments are calculated, Idaho’s most populous counties will see the highest rates of payment per acre, even though they account for a fraction of Idaho’s federal land.

The federal government calculates PILT, or Payment in Lieu of Taxes, based on both the number of acres owned by the federal government and the population of the county.

That population factor means some of the Idaho’s rural counties with the highest number of federal acres received the lowest payments per acre.