Bryan predicts success for land auctioning bill

Brian Seals

Tuesday, Feb. 24, 1998 | 10:07 a.m.

With federally owned lands virtually encompassing the Las Vegas area, the properties are often coveted by developers.

Sen. Richard Bryan is pushing a bill in the Senate that would allow the federal government to alter its policy of trading lands with private owners and instead auction excess federal property.

The practice of trading lands has been criticized and questioned over whether the swaps are equitable to the public. Developers seek to trade lands they own elsewhere for developable land owned by the federal government. Critics question whether the government gets fair value for the land it swaps and say it leads to leap-frog development that develops land without the adequate infrastructure in place.

"That's (auctions) the fairest determination of what the fair market value would be," Bryan told members of the Southern Nevada Chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties last week.

Under the proposal, 85 percent of the proceeds from the sale would be retained by the federal government, but would be earmarked for use in Nevada to improve existing federal sites such as the Red Rock and Lake Mead national recreation areas.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority would get 10 percent of the proceeds to service the auctioned lands and the state would receive the remaining 5 percent.

The measure, called the Southern Nevada Lands Bill, has passed in the House and is in committee in the Senate. "My sense is we're going to get it out," Bryan said.

There is now a moratorium on land swaps, though five applications pending at the time the moratorium was enacted are still being processed, according to Sharon Di Pinto of the Bureau of Land Management. About 25 proposals for swaps were shelved when the moratorium was ordered, she said.

In other matters expected to be addressed in the second session of the 105th Congress:

--Bryan said the often derided Internal Revenue Service will be the focus of much congressional scrutiny and reform efforts. Bryan said he would like to see an end to the quota system for which the IRS is often accused of using.

Reform efforts will likely include strengthening the office of taxpayer advocate and measures to resolve tax disputes at a lower level rather than going through the full administrative process.

Ensuring the IRS does not have a quota for its revenue agents is also likely to be part of the reforms.

--While the balance budget agreement reached last summer has been much ballyhooed by members of Congress, keeping the country's fiscal house in order will require continued vigilance, according to Bryan.

Entitlement programs -- like Medicare and Social Security -- continue to require two thirds of government income, Bryan said. With the baby boomer population aging, pressure on these entitlements is expected to increase around 2010.

Part B of the Medicare program, which funds doctor visits and other services, is funded 75 percent by the government with the rest paid by recipient premiums. Medicare funding totaled about $190 billion in 1997, or about 12 percent of all federal spending.

Bryan said part of Medicare reform may entail requiring wealthy seniors to pay more.

"I think for those taxpayers that are in the upper end of the tax bracket, we just can't justify subsidizing that," Bryan said. "That would be one area we could look at."

President Clinton named a commission earlier this year to study Medicare reform.