Senate passes Lincoln land bill

Benjamin Grove

Monday, Oct. 11, 2004 | 11:08 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate on Sunday approved a revised version of a Nevada lands bill that could mean smaller profits for Clark County when the county's federal land is sold at auction.

The legislation differs with a House version, but Nevada lawmakers hope congressional negotiators can reconcile the bills, probably in a post-election session.

The biggest difference in the House version centers on how money would be distributed after federal land in Lincoln County -- up to 90,000 acres -- is sold.

Under the House version, 50 percent of the money would go to the Bureau of Land Management for Nevada projects, 45 percent would go to Lincoln County and the remaining 5 percent would be deposited in a state education fund.

The Senate version would give the BLM 85 percent and Lincoln County only 10 percent.

But the language of the Senate bill contains a potentially big bonus for Lincoln County -- it would be allowed to tap into funds netted on the lucrative sales of federal land in Clark County.

Federal land in Clark County is now sold at auction under rules dictated by the 1998 Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act. Those land sales have brought in more than $1 billion under the law.

Under the Senate bill approved Sunday, Lincoln County would be eligible to apply for grant money from those Clark County land sales. The rural county could use the money for everything from conservation projects to capital improvements on federal lands and parks and trail projects.

So while Lincoln County would lose some money on its own land sales under the Senate bill, it stands to gain substantially more in claims on an unknown amount of the Clark County land sale profits.

Clark County officials may not object too loudly because the bill still contains a provision that eventually could pave the way for Clark County to tap water in Lincoln County for transport to Las Vegas. The bill would allow the Southern Nevada Water Authority to obtain land for a 299-mile water pipeline corridor.

The pipeline project is subject to further study and would require final approval of the Nevada state engineer, but the project could help alleviate water woes in drought-stricken Southern Nevada.

Clark County manager Thom Reilly said the Senate bill would merely allow Lincoln to compete for Clark County land sale money, and likely would not amount to significant losses for Clark.

"It seems like it is something that both Lincoln and Clark counties would benefit from," he said. "I don't think that this would in any way endanger any of the projects we are working on."

House bill author Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., is still reviewing the new Senate version and could not comment this morning, spokeswoman Amy Spanbauer said.