Editorial: Putting the brakes on land plan

Saturday, Feb. 4, 2006 | 12:30 p.m.

Henderson's attempt to acquire 500 acres of federal land, so it could be sold and developed into a business center, has been halted in Congress over objections to how money from the sale would be distributed.

The tract was to be transferred to Henderson under the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act, a 1998 law that regulates the sale of federal land in Southern Nevada and transfers of such land from the Bureau of Land Management to local governments. Under that measure, 85 percent of the money from sale of federal land is to be used for Nevada parks and conservation projects, 5 percent goes to the state for schools and the Southern Nevada Water Authority receives the remaining 10 percent.

As a Las Vegas Sun story explained Wednesday, Henderson officials hoped to auction off the formerly federal land to private developers and keep the Water Authority's usual 10 percent, through a piece of legislation introduced in Congress by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev.

Henderson officials planned to use the Water Authority's cut of the money - which they estimated at $5 million but real estate experts said could be as high as $41 million - to build such infrastructure as water and sewer lines.

But Water Authority officials objected. The agency needs the revenue for upcoming projects, said Water Authority Chairwoman Amanda Cyphers, who is also a Henderson City Council member. More importantly, agency officials don't want to set a precedent of changing the formula for the proceeds from federal land transactions. Henderson city officials likely will agree to drop the 10 percent provision, Cyphers told the Sun.

The 502-acre development could employ as many as 17,000 people in a wide range of businesses, providing Henderson with much-needed economic diversity. But diverting any part of the land sales proceeds is a dangerous precedent. The Bush administration already has tried to raid Nevada's land-sale funds.

In an attempt to cut the deficit last year, the White House asked Congress to take 70 percent of the money generated by Nevada's public land sales and send it to the federal treasury.

The carefully crafted legislation that provides a permanent source of revenue for Nevada's parks, conservation efforts, schools and future water development must be protected.