(Washington, D.C.) - Montana's senior U.S. Senator Max Baucus announced today 56 Montana counties will receive more than $26 million to fund schools, roads, search and rescue and other important county programs.  The funds are available through the 2012 Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program Baucus is currently fighting to extend for another year.

Along with the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) program, rural counties are able to invest in construction projects, roads, education and forest conservation to make up for their inability to collect taxes on large swaths of public lands. Last year, PILT and SRS brought nearly $50 million to Montana counties.

"These investments are a lifeline to our first responders, our rural teachers and our county road departments. Montana counties that are home to large areas of national forest lands rely on these programs to keep the lights on and take care of essential public services. I'm pleased to see Montana receive these funds and I'm working to extend them. Now is not the time to pull the rug out from under our rural counties that have been hit hard by the economic downturn," said Baucus.

As a lead architect of the Highway Bill, Baucus pushed his colleagues to extend the programs as an amendment to the transportation debate because more than 50 percent of SRS payments went to roads over the last decade, and census data shows much of PILT is spent on highways as well.

A full list of funding is available online HERE.