Editorial: Money grab: It’s baaack

Friday, May 6, 2005 | 10:01 a.m.

President Bush's proposed budget, released in February, included a nasty surprise for Nevada. It proposed taking at least $700 million a year from this state and using it to pay down the ballooning federal deficit. This thievery would be accomplished by amending the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act. Passed by Congress in 1998, the act mandates that proceeds from all federal land sales in Nevada be spent in the state for specific public purposes, including environmental conservation, airport and water infrastructure and education. The act compensates Nevada for the vast amount of federally owned land here that does not contribute to the state's economy.

Our congressional delegation was successful in keeping Bush's proposal out of the resolutions adopted by the House and Senate budget committees. But a House committee this week passed a bill ordering the Interior Department to audit how money generated through the land act has been spent. Language could be added later to this bill, reviving Bush's proposed money grab.

A straight audit would be fine, as the spending of all public money should be tracked. But to use an audit as a guise for picking the pockets of Nevadans would be unconscionable. Our delegation is wise to this possibility and is already on alert. The rest of us should stay alert, too.