The Uintah County Commission has allocated mineral lease funds for 2020 to the 6 special service districts. A press release issued on Thursday states that based on the projection that Uintah County will receive about $10 million dollars, the following amounts will be allocated to the districts: $3.3 million dollars will go to the Uintah Impact Mitigation District which up from $1.5 million dollars in 2019. $2.3 million dollars will go to the Uintah Transportation District which is down from $4.5 million dollars in 2019. $1.4 million dollars will go to the Uintah Recreation District which is down from $2.8 million dollars in 2019. $1.2 million dollars will go to the Uintah Fire District which is down from $1.6 million dollars in 2019. $1 million dollars will go to the Uintah Health Care District which is down from $1.2 million dollars in 2019. And $804,000 dollars will go to the Uintah Animal Control and Shelter District which is unchanged from 2019. The Commission stated that if less than $10 million dollars is released then the Transportation District’s allocation will be adjusted downward after the other districts receive their full allocations. “Uintah County could choose to keep the mineral lease money it receives in its coffers,” shares the press release. “If the county did that, however, it would forfeit about $3 million dollars annually in Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT)…The amount of mineral lease money the county receives has been in decline for several years due to a drop off in oil and gas development and production on federal land in Utah. In 2009, Uintah County received $21.1 million dollars in mineral lease funds. Ten years later, when commissioners were allocating money to the districts for 2019, the county was projected to receive only about $12.4 million dollars. At present, however, the county is expected to receive less than $10 million in mineral lease money for 2019. This means the special service districts will have to use their savings and/or PILT pass-through funds to cover any 2019 budget shortfalls.”
