Increases Fair Property Value Assessments

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.