Assembly Joint Resolution No. 6–Assemblymen Hardy, Gibbons, Collins, Marvel, Mabey, Andonov, Beers, Brown, Christensen, Geddes, Goicoechea, Grady, Griffin, Gustavson, Hettrick, Knecht, Koivisto, Manendo, McCleary, Pierce, Sherer and Weber

 

March 13, 2003

____________

 

Joint Sponsors: Senators McGinness, Schneider, Washington and Wiener

____________

 

Referred to Committee on Elections, Procedures, and Ethics

 

SUMMARY—Urges Congress to increase payments in lieu of taxes and make certain other reparations for detrimental effects of federally held lands in Nevada. (BDR R‑810)

 

FISCAL NOTE:  Effect on Local Government: No.

                   Effect on the State: No.

 

~

 

EXPLANATION – Matter in bolded italics is new; matter between brackets [omitted material] is material to be omitted.

 

Assembly Joint RESOLUTION—Urging Congress to increase payments in lieu of taxes and make certain other reparations for the detrimental effects of federally held lands in Nevada.

 

1-1  Whereas, An average of 52 percent of the land in 13 western

1-2  states is held by the Federal Government, while the Federal

1-3  Government holds an average of only 4.1 percent of the land in the

1-4  remaining 37 states; and

1-5  Whereas, In Nevada, approximately 87 percent of the land,

1-6  which amounts to approximately 61 million acres, is held by the

1-7  Federal Government; and

1-8  Whereas, In 15 of the 17 counties in Nevada, more than 50

1-9  percent of the land is held by the Federal Government, and in 4 of

1-10  the 17 counties, more than 90 percent of the land is held by the

1-11  Federal Government; and

2-1  Whereas, The management and control of such an extensive

2-2  amount of the land in Nevada by the Federal Government has had

2-3  substantial adverse effects on Nevadans; and

2-4  Whereas, When the Territory of Nevada was admitted to

2-5  statehood on October 31, 1864, the Federal Government provided

2-6  the newly admitted state with 2 sections of land in each township for

2-7  the benefit of common schools, which amounted to 3.9 million

2-8  acres, while other states that were subsequently admitted to

2-9  statehood received 4 sections of land in each township for the

2-10  benefit of common schools; and

2-11      Whereas, In 1880, it was necessary for Nevada to agree to

2-12  exchange its 3.9 million acres for only 2 million acres of its own

2-13  selection as Nevada had an immediate need for public school

2-14  revenues and the land originally granted by the Federal Government

2-15  to Nevada for common schools was not providing sufficient revenue

2-16  because it included many undesirable sections that were on steep

2-17  mountainsides or salt flats, the sections of the land could not be

2-18  received from the Federal Government until they were surveyed and

2-19  only a small fraction of the land had been surveyed and sold; and

2-20      Whereas, The disproportionately small amount of land

2-21  received from the Federal Government for the benefit of common

2-22  schools contributes only a small amount of revenue for the schools

2-23  in Nevada in comparison to other states, and places an excessive

2-24  burden on the financial resources of each county in Nevada; and

2-25      Whereas, Because the land held by the Federal Government is

2-26  exempt from property taxes, the management and control of such an

2-27  extensive amount of land in Nevada by the Federal Government has

2-28  the effect of worsening the tremendous fiscal burdens experienced

2-29  by counties in Nevada for those counties with a considerable

2-30  amount of federally held land located within their boundaries; and

2-31      Whereas, The annual impact of this property tax exemption in

2-32  the western states has been estimated at billions of dollars, which

2-33  greatly hinders the ability of those western states, including Nevada,

2-34  to develop and prosper economically; and

2-35      Whereas, In 1976, Congress enacted Public Law 94-565,

2-36  which is codified as 31 U.S.C. §§ 6901 to 6907, inclusive, and as

2-37  amended, is commonly known as the Payments In Lieu of Taxes

2-38  Act; and

2-39      Whereas, The Act requires the Federal Government to make

2-40  annual payments to local governments to compensate the local

2-41  governments for the loss of revenue they experience because of the

2-42  presence of land within their boundaries that is held by the Federal

2-43  Government; and

2-44      Whereas, Congress appropriates money each year that the

2-45  Bureau of Land Management distributes to each of the 17 counties

3-1  in the State of Nevada pursuant to several statutory formulas set

3-2  forth in the Act; and

3-3  Whereas, The annual payments received by the counties in

3-4  Nevada pursuant to the Act are significantly less than the annual

3-5  revenue that those counties could collect from property taxes if the

3-6  land held by the Federal Government were privately held; and

3-7  Whereas, From the inception of the payments in 1977 to the

3-8  end of the 2001-2002 Fiscal Year, the money appropriated by

3-9  Congress has been insufficient to provide full payment to the

3-10  counties in Nevada pursuant to the statutory formulas; and

3-11      Whereas, Even though Nevada is the state with the second

3-12  highest percentage of land held by the Federal Government, Nevada

3-13  only ranks as the eighth highest state in terms of the amount of the

3-14  payments it receives from the Bureau of Land Management pursuant

3-15  to the Act because the statutory formula set forth in 31 U.S.C. §

3-16  6903 is based in part on the population of the local government that

3-17  will be receiving the payments, and 14 of the 17 counties in Nevada

3-18  have populations that are less than 50,000; and

3-19      Whereas, Another example of the adverse effects of the

3-20  management and control of the extensive amount of land in Nevada

3-21  held by the Federal Government is the management and control of

3-22  the Nevada Test Site, which was established in December 1950, by

3-23  President Truman, upon the recommendation of the Atomic Energy

3-24  Commission, as the location at which nuclear weapons testing

3-25  would be conducted within the continental United States; and

3-26      Whereas, Approximately 5,470 square miles of federally held

3-27  land in Nevada was used to provide:

3-28      1.  The Nevada Test Site, which is owned and controlled by the

3-29  United States Department of Energy and encompasses

3-30  approximately 1,350 square miles of desert and mountainous terrain,

3-31  an area which is larger than the State of Rhode Island; and

3-32      2.  An additional 4,120 square miles of unpopulated land area

3-33  surrounding the site which was withdrawn from the public domain

3-34  for use as a protected wildlife range and for a military gunnery

3-35  range; and

3-36      Whereas, More than 1,100 nuclear weapons tests were

3-37  conducted at the Nevada Test Site, located 65 miles northwest of

3-38  Las Vegas, Nevada, before the Limited Test Ban Treaty, which

3-39  effectively banned atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, was

3-40  signed on August 5, 1963; and

3-41      Whereas, While the primary mission of the Nevada Test Site

3-42  has been the testing of nuclear weapons, after the signing of the

3-43  Limited Test Ban Treaty in 1963 and the initiation of a voluntary

3-44  worldwide moratorium on nuclear weapons testing in 1992, the

3-45  Nevada Test Site has been used for other purposes, including,

4-1  without limitation, hazardous chemical spill testing, emergency

4-2  response training, conventional weapons testing, conducting studies

4-3  relating to waste management and environmental technology, and

4-4  storing low-level waste; and

4-5  Whereas, In 1978, the United States Department of Energy

4-6  established two Radioactive Waste Management Sites at the Nevada

4-7  Test Site which have received approximately 21 million cubic feet

4-8  of low-level waste for disposal from 1978 until the present, making

4-9  the Nevada Test Site one of the largest regional low-level waste

4-10  storage facilities in the country; and

4-11      Whereas, Because the Nevada Test Site is centrally located

4-12  within the Death Valley regional ground-water flow system, which

4-13  includes much of southern Nevada and the Death Valley region of

4-14  eastern California, the residents of Nevada and California are

4-15  subject to risks from subsurface contaminants that may be

4-16  transported from the Nevada Test Site by ground water as a result of

4-17  past and future activities conducted at the Nevada Test Site; and

4-18      Whereas, The residents and resources of Nevada may be

4-19  exposed to additional risks because most of the ground water

4-20  leaving the ground-water flow system is limited to local areas where

4-21  geologic and hydrologic conditions force ground water upward

4-22  toward the surface to discharge at springs and seeps; now, therefore,

4-23  be it

4-24      Resolved by the Assembly and Senate of the State of

4-25  Nevada, Jointly, That the members of the 72nd Session of the

4-26  Nevada Legislature hereby urge Congress to:

4-27      1.  Authorize the transfer of land in Nevada from the Federal

4-28  Government to the State of Nevada in the amount necessary to

4-29  provide Nevada with the same amount of land received by the states

4-30  that received 4 sections of land for the benefit of common schools

4-31  upon admission to statehood;

4-32      2.  Either:

4-33      (a) Amend 31 U.S.C. § 6906 to provide permanent funding in

4-34  the amount necessary to carry out the Payments In Lieu of Taxes

4-35  Act as set forth in 31 U.S.C. §§ 6901 to 6907, inclusive; or

4-36      (b) Appropriate for distribution to the counties in the State of

4-37  Nevada a sufficient amount of money each fiscal year to provide the

4-38  entire amount of the payments required by the statutory formulas set

4-39  forth in the Payments In Lieu of Taxes Act;

4-40      3.  Amend 31 U.S.C. § 6903 by deleting the current population-

4-41  based statutory formula and replacing it with a provision that

4-42  authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to compensate the counties in

4-43  Nevada and the local governments of other states in an amount that

4-44  is equal to the amount that those counties and other local

5-1  governments would be able to collect in property taxes if the land

5-2  held by the Federal Government were privately held; and

5-3  4.  Either:

5-4  (a) Authorize the transfer of an additional 5,470 square miles of

5-5  land in Nevada and any water rights appurtenant thereto from the

5-6  Federal Government to the State of Nevada to fairly compensate

5-7  Nevada for the approximately 5,470 square miles of land that were

5-8  withdrawn from the public domain for the purpose of establishing

5-9  the Nevada Test Site; or

5-10      (b) Appropriate for distribution to the State of Nevada the

5-11  amount of money necessary to fairly compensate Nevada for the

5-12  approximately 5,470 square miles of land that were withdrawn from

5-13  the public domain for the purpose of establishing the Nevada Test

5-14  Site and any detrimental effects to that land and to the Death Valley

5-15  regional ground-water flow system that resulted from the activities

5-16  conducted at the Nevada Test Site; and be it further

5-17      Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly prepare and

5-18  transmit a copy of this resolution to the Vice President of the United

5-19  States as presiding officer of the United States Senate, the Speaker

5-20  of the House of Representatives, the Secretary of the Interior, the

5-21  Secretary of Energy, the Director of the Bureau of Land

5-22  Management and each member of the Nevada Congressional

5-23  Delegation; and be it further

5-24      Resolved, That this resolution becomes effective upon

5-25  passage.

 

5-26  H