The Vegas Voice - The Need To Stand Up To The Federal Government
The Need To Stand Up To The Federal Government (Vegas Voice April 2005)
DIALOGUE WITH DINA APRIL 2005
Here in Carson City we are at the midway point, approximately halfway through the legislative session. The first half was dominated by the property tax issue. As you know, I sponsored the Titus Tax Freeze to freeze rates at the 2004 level until a permanent solution can be found. The outcome is yet to be determined as of publication date.
There are other major issues on the table. Will we fund all-day kindergarten for $70 million? Will we pass a resolution putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot to allow Nevada to have a lottery to fund school books and class size reduction? Will we give Nevadans a $1.00 raise in minimum wage instead of waiting until a constitutional amendment is approved by the voters in November 2006? Will surplus funds be rebated to the public in a refund check?
These are questions that provoke debate, and I encourage you to contact your representative to express your opinion. The one money issue that everyone agrees on, however, is the need to strongly oppose President Bush's plan to shift millions of dollars from public land sales in Clark County.
Recently, in an attempt to reduce the soaring federal deficit, the President recommended in his budget that money generated by federal land sales in Clark County be funneled to the national treasury. Specifically, the administration proposed siphoning off 70 percent of our land sale revenue, or some $700 million a year, to pay down the staggering $527 billion deficit.
Since the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act was adopted in 1998, land sales in Southern Nevada have generated $1.6 billion. That is much higher than anyone anticipated. Under the law, 5 percent of the receipts are set aside for Nevada schools, 10 percent for water infrastructure, and 85 percent for environmental restoration, parks, recreation projects, and sensitive land acquisition throughout the state, including $300 million specifically for Lake Tahoe. Now Washington wants to take it away from us.
If this money is taken from Nevada, it will be devastating for the State. Projects like the Clark County Shooting Range, the Spring Mountains Information Center, and improvements at Lake Mead and Red Rock Canyon, among others, will be jeopardized.
Not long ago, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton visited Nevada and praised our land sale program as a model that could be used to dispose of federal lands and protect sensitive areas elsewhere. She did not mention, however, that the President intended to take our money and use it instead to reduce the deficit.
I introduced a resolution in the Senate which passed unanimously on February15, 2005, urging the President and the Congress not to take Nevada's money to help reduce the federal deficit. Senators Reid and Ensign have temporarily stopped the move in the Senate, but it has re-emerged in the House in a slightly different form. Please join me in sending a loud message to Washington that we strongly oppose such action. This money should be spent in Nevada on programs for Nevada.
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