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May 13, 2005
Land bill battle heats up
By SAMANTHA YOUNG The House Appropriations Committee approved legislation that Nevada leaders fear could open the door to a loss of $700 million a year the government is required to spend in the state. But as Congress grapples with looming deficits, a Bush administration plan to tap Southern Nevada land profits is proving attractive, several lawmakers said. "We're half a billion dollars in deficit. There's always an interest in money anywhere," said Rep. Charles Taylor, R-N.C. chairman of the panel that sets annual spending for the Interior Department. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., the panel's top Democrat, added "there's always going to be an interest" in the fund because of the record revenues generated by federal land sales in the Las Vegas Valley. The bill that advanced Tuesday directs Interior Secretary Gale Norton to send Congress a report on how the government has spent sales profits generated from Southern Nevada land in 2003 and 2004. "We will review it and then look at the amount of money that is coming in versus what was intended or expected when it passed," Taylor said. House aides said the bill could serve as a springboard for lawmakers later this year to try to change the 1998 law that governs Southern Nevada land sales. Nevada lawmakers are bracing for a possible fight. "We don't know what is going to come out of the study," said Amy Spanbauer, chief of staff to Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev. "The congressman's hope is that it will show how beneficial it has been to Nevada." When it was enacted in 1998, Congress was told that excess Bureau of Land Management property in Southern Nevada would fetch $70 million - a fraction of the $2.2 billion that has been raised so far. The Bush administration has proposed sending 70 percent of the annual profits into the U.S. Treasury while continuing to spend 30 percent, about $360 million next year, in Nevada. Prior to the Congress's plan to claim a large percentage of the revenue, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., publicly urged Nye County officials to establish their own land bill similar to Clary County's. The Clark County matter was a small part of a $26.2 billion bill that sets spending for the Interior Department, the U.S. Forest Service and the Environmental Protection Agency. In other areas, committee lawmakers chose not to renew a long-standing ban on wild horse slaughter in deference to a new sale program created in March. Congress last year directed the BLM to sell all captured wild horses that are more than 10 years old or those that have not fetched an owner at three government run adoptions. The government has sold about 1,000 horses, but at least 41 animals have been resold and slaughtered at a meat packing plant in Illinois. "It is disheartening that language protecting these American beauties from senseless slaughter is missing from this spending bill," said Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., who has sponsored a bill to repeal the sales program. The Interior bill also: € Boosts federal payments to counties that cannot collect taxes on federal land. The bill funds the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program at $230 million, significantly higher than the $204 million the Bush administration proposed. This would have a profoundly positive impact on Nye County, which stands to lose millions based on the President's proposal. € Reduces the Interior Department budget for land acquisition from $212 million to $43 million in 2006. € Increases funding for National Park Service operations by $70 million to reduce the maintenance backlog at the parks. |
