Panel chairman from California backs Nevada on keeping land sales money

Suzanne Struglinski

Thursday, March 17, 2005 | 11:09 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., will oppose the Bush administration's plan to shift 70 percent of Nevada land sale money to the general treasury, Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., announced today.

The option is not expected to be included in the budget resolution in either chamber, but the House Resources Committee still could have kept the idea alive.

"I will continue to work with Representatives Gibbons and Porter to make sure that Nevada is well taken care of in the (fiscal year) 2006 budget," Pombo said in a statement. "Clearly, the present (Office of Management and Budget) proposal with regard to the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act account does not meet that standard, and we will work together to make sure that Nevada comes out on top when all is said and done."

Currently, under the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act, all the money from public land auctions in Nevada stays within the state and different percentages go to the education fund, water treatment and federal land conservation projects.

But in the 2006 budget proposal, President Bush wants to funnel 70 percent of money earned from Nevada public land sales to the general treasury, leaving 30 percent to the state.

The Nevada delegation strongly opposes the idea. Gibbons, Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., and Rep. Shelley Berkely, D-Nev., all testified against it before the House Budget Committee earlier this month. Gibbons, who is the chairman of the House Resources Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee, and Porter each met with Pombo to talk about the idea and he agreed to oppose the proposal, according to Gibbons.