In addition to payments the Secretary of the Interior makes under section 6902 of this title, the Secretary shall make a payment for each fiscal year to a unit of general local government collecting and distributing real property taxes (including a unit in Alaska outside the boundaries of an organized borough) in which is located an interest in land that—

the United States Government acquires for—

(A) the National Park System; or

(B) the National Forest Wilderness Areas; and

(2) was subject to local real property taxes within the 5-year period before the interest is acquired.

The Secretary shall make payments only for the 5 fiscal years after the fiscal year in which the interest in land is acquired. Under guidelines the Secretary prescribes, the unit of general local government receiving the payment from the Secretary shall distribute payments proportionally to units and school districts that lost real property taxes because of the acquisition of the interest. A unit receiving a distribution may use a payment for any governmental purpose.

Each yearly payment by the Secretary under this section is equal to one percent of the fair market value of the interest in land on the date the Government acquires the interest. However, a payment may not be more than the amount of real property taxes levied on the property during the last fiscal year before the fiscal year in which the interest is acquired. A decision on fair market value under this section may not include an increase in the value of an interest because the land is rezoned when the rezoning causes the increase after the date of enactment of a law authorizing the acquisition of an interest under subsection (a) of this section.

The Secretary may prescribe regulations under which payments may be made to units of general local government when subsections (a) and (b) of this section will not carry out the purpose of subsections (a) and (b).

(Pub. L. 97–258, Sept. 13, 1982, 96 Stat. 1033.)