Lawmaker seeks federal restitution

Erin Neff

Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2003 | 9:24 a.m.

Freshman Assemblyman Joe Hardy is doing what politicians like to call "thinking outside the box."

But with Hardy talking about offering tax rebates when all of his colleagues and the governor are talking tax hikes, some might argue that Hardy is "thinking out of this world."

Hardy, R-Boulder City, is a family physician and former Boulder City councilman who understands that his idea isn't grounded in the political reality of an $800 million deficit.

"I'm not optimistic that this is going to happen with one freshman legislator in one session," Hardy said.

And while he can't put a price tag on his proposal and doesn't know how much money Nevadans could get back, Hardy said he thinks the idea could eventually work.

Hardy has submitted a bill draft request to offer rebates to citizens based on a program offered in Alaska. Alaska residents receive payments each year based on the money that state receives from the federal government for the oil pipeline.

Nevada should also be able to bargain with the feds for restitution, Hardy said. Not for oil, and not for the nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain, however.

The federal government should compensate Nevada for ruining the land and water at the Nevada Test Site, Hardy said.

About 1,000 atomic tests took place at the 1,375-square-mile site from the 1950s to 1992.

"The Nevada Test Site is an opportunity for the federal government to give us land and water," Hardy said. "We could use it as a bargaining chip."

The Test Site is a "resource of land that we can't take advantage of" because of the radiation-contaminated land and water.

"It's already going down the same drainage aquifers going down to Death Valley through the Amargosa Valley, and that's not from a mountain that starts with a Y," Hardy said.

Hardy said the state should get compensation in the form of an equal-sized area of land outside the Test Site. The federal government controls approximately 87 percent of the land in Nevada.

In 2002, the federal government paid Nevada about $9.9 million in lieu of property taxes.

Hardy said Nevadans could recoup enough money for rebates just from owning a Rhode Island-sized chunk of land the feds now control.

When Hardy's plan was first floated to Assemblyman Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, the veteran lawmaker on the Ways and Means Committee wanted to know which land Nevada would get for the Test Site.

"We'll take Fort Knox," Beers offered, before being told that Hardy envisioned land within the state.

Beers said he wanted more information about Hardy's plan before commenting specifically, but he said there is merit to exploring it.

"I wouldn't instantly rule out any effort to reciprocate the treatment that Nevada has received from the federal government," Beers said.

Assemblyman David Goldwater, D-Las Vegas, vice chairman of the Taxation Committee, wasn't immediately certain how Hardy's plan would work.

"If Mr. Hardy can figure out a way to do it, I'm in full favor of it," Goldwater said.