White House still has eye on county land sales

Suzanne Struglinski

Friday, Sept. 23, 2005 | 11:02 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The proposal to shift Clark County federal land sale profits from Nevada to the U.S. Treasury is still being quietly discussed as a cost-savings measure for an increasingly burdened federal budget, congressional sources said.

Early this year the Bush administration proposed funneling the land sale proceeds to the federal government to help offset the ballooning federal deficit. Public land has been sold at auction under terms of the 1998 Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act.

Profits have vastly exceeded expectations -- and caught the attention of the White House. More than $2 billion has been netted from the sales so far.

The land sale profits currently stay in Nevada -- 10 percent goes to the Southern Nevada Water Authority for water projects, 5 percent for state public education, and 85 percent is used for land conservation and projects like parks and trails.

White House officials have argued that some of the money from federal land sales should go back to federal taxpayers. Nevada lawmakers have fought to keep the money in the state. Nevada's senators, Democrat Harry Reid and Republican John Ensign, earlier this year said the proposal was dead in the Senate.

A few House lawmakers have shown quiet interest in siphoning some percentage of the land sale money back to Washington, but it was believed that the proposal was most likely dead for the year.

Now as part of a budget review process ongoing in the House, the House Resources Committee has included a version of the Bush proposal in an internal document that includes a long list of possible cost-savings measures that would help the panel save $2.4 billion, the environmental news service Greenwire reported today. A panel source confirmed that.

The draft of the document proposes funneling 40 percent of land sale money to the U.S. Treasury. Nevada would keep 60 percent. The proposal recommends that the state education fund be increased from 5 percent to 35 percent; that the land program share be shrunk from 85 percent to 15 percent; and that the water authority keep its 10 percent.

But most, if not all, of the cost-savings measures -- including the Clark County land sale proposal -- are not likely to be pursued as the budget reconciliation process advances, likely next month, a congressional source who spoke on the condition on anonymity said today.

The panel is more likely to pursue another cost-saving option, the source said.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., who sits on the House Resources Committee, has been in regular contact with panel Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., to stress his opposition to the administration's proposal, according to his office.

"The chairman and Jim have spoken about it and he (Pombo) has said he will not do anything to hurt Nevada," Gibbons spokeswoman Amy Maier said.

Gibbons is united with the rest of Nevada's congressional delegation against the Bush proposal. But he had suggested a formula change in the way land sale proceeds are distributed, proposing that 35 percent be given to state education. Gibbons has backed off that proposal for now to avoid "opening the floodgates" to proposed changes to the 1998 law.

Maier said there have been rumors about what may or may not be under consideration as part of the budget reconciliation process.