UTAH: Another federal lands takeover study moves through state House
Published: Wednesday, March 11, 2015
A Utah state House committee passed a bill Monday authorizing another $500,000 study of a federal lands takeover.
The study would aim to win over support among public school educators in Utah for the state to assume control over federal land, a plan with which the federal government has refused to comply.
Sen. Aaron Osmond (R) said that because public educators and administrators view the plan "as just another fight against the federal government," his bill's study would quantify how much revenue would go toward education after a takeover.
"There isn't really a perception, especially in public education, of the potential benefit that this transfer would mean to the state," Osmond said.
Utah schools, some of the most underfunded in the nation, received 2.25 percent of the $100 million Utah received last year from its existing cut of federal oil and gas lease revenue.
Critics said the proposed study will only replicate a recently released economics study, which found Utah could shoulder the management burden of a takeover, but only under ideal conditions (Greenwire, Feb. 9).
Rep. Timothy Hawkes (R) and two other committee members voted against the bill (Brian Maffly, Salt Lake Tribune, March 10). -- DTB
