Sunday, April 2, 2006 | 7:23 a.m.
Southern Nevadans have so many reasons to dislike departing Interior Secretary Gale Norton that I cannot imagine that she would want to give us another, but she has.
On her way out the door from the gang that couldn't govern straight, Norton renewed her call to take 70 percent of the money generated from land auctions under the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act (SNPLMA) and use it to defray the national debt. You have done too well, she whines, and you don't deserve the $2 billion we've raised from the sale of lands around you.
Wait a minute! A Cabinet official in the most profligate administration in American history has the audacity to tell us what to do with the proceeds from SNPLMA? That takes a lot of nerve! The government that spent the American economy into oblivion now proposes frugality at the expense of Clark County. Stuff it, Madame Secretary.
The SNPLMA was drawn up for specific purposes. The law was to mitigate the impact of the development that would occur on the lands auctioned. It created a developable footprint in Southern Nevada, allowing us to avoid a number of thorny environmental issues, and it divides the proceeds in specific ways - 5 percent to the state's general education fund, 10 percent to the Southern Nevada Water Authority and the remainder for quality-of-life and environmental purposes in the Las Vegas Valley and at Lake Tahoe.
It also put an end to the ongoing fraud that had occurred with what are called in-lieu exchanges, circumstances in which lands that the federal government desires in other places are traded for developable land in the Las Vegas Valley. Without pointing fingers, let's just say before the SNPLMA, the process stunk.
The SNPLMA has been a windfall for Southern Nevada, no doubt. The run-up in land value that has accompanied the auctions has generated infinitely more money than anyone expected. With some of that land going for as much as $700,000 an acre, there is a lot more to mitigate the impact of growth in the valley.
At the same time, there is a lot more to mitigate. Growth and the rising cost of land has created a host of social problems, not the least of which is the almost complete absence of affordable and attainable housing in greater Las Vegas. With the average household income at around $50,000 and the mean home price in the vicinity of $300,000, it is safe to say that the average Las Vegas family cannot afford the average home.
Even more, it doesn't take a genius to see that the strain on our infrastructure is growing. Even as we build roads and schools, parks, and the whole array of other things our rapidly growing community needs, we are forced to rely on our own devices for a great deal of the work.
If you look carefully when you cross Interstate 15 headed west on the Las Vegas Beltway, you'll see the blue federal interstate sign give way to the Clark County beltway signs, desert tone in color. At that point, local dollars pay for that road, a remarkable achievement. No other community in America has undertaken such a task and accomplished it.
But that road serves people who live on land a good part of which became available for development under the SNPLMA. Local and regional government pays for countless other services that are necessary because of the development of that land. That's why we need the money and why we sought the law in the first place.
So, Congress made a law and Nevada got the better of it. After aboveground atomic and nuclear testing and the fiasco of the Yucca Mountain project foisted upon us by something called the "Screw Nevada" bill, isn't it about time we caught a break?
Where I come from, a deal is a deal. You make it, you live with it. In Nevada's sordid 20th-century history with the federal government, we finally won one. No doubt. There's $2 billion in the kitty and it's ours. If you want it, Secretary Norton, come try to take it away. We will hold you and your free-spending friends accountable.
The SNPLMA should be the litmus test for Nevada politicians, the third rail of our dialogue. Anyone who wants to take even a dime of this money away from Clark County should be tarred and feathered and returned to the Bush administration, postage due.
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