Mining fee increase would help educate

Goal of proposal is to replace $400,000 UNR cut from budget

Wednesday, July 23, 2008 | 2 a.m.

CARSON CITY — Don’t worry, Governor — it’s a fee increase, not a tax increase.

The annual cost of filing a mining claim in Nevada will rise by $2, to $8.50, beginning Aug. 4, with the additional proceeds helping to fund the mining school at the University of Nevada, Reno.

The move should generate about $400,000 a year for the Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, which had its budget cut by about that amount in the recent round of state spending reductions ordered by Gov. Jim Gibbons, who is a graduate of the mining school.

The Commission on Mineral Resources unanimously approved the fee hike Tuesday.

But not before Nye County Recorder Byron Foster questioned whether such a move would violate Gibbons’ no-new-taxes pledge.

“Has anybody run this by the governor’s office?” he said.

Alan Coyner, administrator of the Minerals Division, said later he had “run it by the governor’s office” and had not received a response. He interpreted that as “tacit approval.”

Regardless, Coyner said, it is a fee increase and not a tax increase.

The previous hike in the filing fee was in 2001, when it rose to $6.50, Coyner said.

Public comment on the proposal showed 23 responses in favor, three against and three neutral. Barrick Gold of North America and the Newmont Mining Corp., which control about 50,000 of the 220,000 mining claims in the state, were both in favor of the increase.

Gregory Lang, Barrick’s president and chief executive, said there is a growing shortage of qualified engineers and scientists, and the Nevada mining school is “one of the premier schools in the country.” There are only 14 such programs in the United States.

UNR President Milton Glick told the commission it costs three times as much to educate a mining engineer as it does the average university student. “This is going a long way in helping us,” Glick said.

The contract between the state Minerals Division and the university to provide the additional funds to the mining school must be approved by the state Board of Examiners and the Legislative Interim Finance Committee.

The $6.50 fee per claim currently pays for operation of the Minerals Division and its program to fence off the estimated 200,000 abandoned mines across the state. In addition to the state’s fee, the federal government charges $125 per claim.

Discussion: 2 comments so far…

By texexnv

7/23/08 at 8:09 a.m.

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GASP! Boss Reid will have a hissy-fit over new taxes on his biggest contributers (even if they do support it).

After all, this is money they could have given to him instead of to education.
By Antisocialist

7/23/08 at 2:23 p.m.

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What a bunch of IDIOTS. You do not need more money, You need someone smart enough to figure out how to run the school with the money it is given. Fire those in charge and use that overpaid administrators money and there you have it with money left over. The best thing that could happen would be to close down completely and lease out the campus to someone smart enough to operate as a business and hire people who are actually smart enough to teach the students what the course is and require the students learn it or get out. That would be a private business such as University of Phoenix or that sort. Not a (Property Of The State,Tenured Comunistic Organization)failed unneccessary drain on the real world. When students actually want to learn something they will pay for it, thats why you have all these idiots walking around or laying around more likely. Socialism, why do you think all the tech jobs are in India or China, you have to have someone smart enough to do it.
They wanted the MOB out of Nevada once, now they run ALL the school systems.