Dear HCN,
County officials
throughout the West are talking about “taking back the land” by
abolishing the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service. Last
year we began hearing a legal argument that New Mexico was denied
statehood on an “equal footing” with the original 13 states,
contrary to the U.S. Constitution. This old theory holds that since
the federal government reserved no public land in the original
states, it cannot legally manage the 23 million acres it claims in
New Mexico (see Hotline, p.5).
After Catron and
other counties adopted ordinances or resolutions claiming federal
public lands, we looked into the implications for the state land
trust. We found that the claim has shaky footing for several
reasons:
* In our statehood compact with the
federal government, like most other states we agreed to “forever
disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated and ungranted
public lands.” Litigating this doctrine now is pointless and
benefits lawyers only;
* The authority of
Congress to give and take land from the states was established by
the U.S. Supreme Court before the Civil War and is still the law of
the land. “Equal footing” means such things as a state’s right to
be represented in Congress, not equality in land
ownership;
* The implication that Washington
merely siphons all our resources is wrong. New Mexico’s public
lands raise about $100 million, which is sent to Washington, D.C.,
but the state receives more than $150 million from the federal
government.
New Mexico, for instance, is the
number-one recipient of BLM payments in lieu of taxes (the PILT
program) which go directly to counties. In 1994, the PILT was about
$10.6 million. National forest revenues, earmarked for public
schools, totaled nearly $1.5 million.
Catron
County, the least populated but largest county in New Mexico, got
about $547,000 from these two sources; Lincoln and Otero counties
received a combined $1.4 million.
It is ironic
and sad that these counties, which have adopted “equal footing”
documents, would suffer the most from it.
Don’t
forget: Any county taking over public lands also encumbers
financial obligation for even minimal management. This analysis
also does not account for the economic significance of the nearly
2,000 federal land employees and their families, or their personal
or official expenditures in New Mexico.
Finally,
the “taking back the land” drive fails to address the value of
federal public lands for reasons other than money. What is it worth
to be able to take a walk or have a picnic on land that all of us
own?
Ray
Powell
Santa Fe, New
Mexico
Ray Powell is
Commissioner of Public Lands for the State of New Mexico, where he
administers 9 million acres for the benefit of public
education.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Counties can’t “take back’ federal land.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
