Utah Legislator presents on Utah's Transfer of Public Lands Act

Ken Ivory, American Lands Council,
presents to a joint committee

meeting Monday

Earlier this month, House Speaker Scott Bedke said he supported his predecessor's interest in exploring an Idaho version of the Utah Transfer of Public Lands Act, which would shift management of acres of federal lands to the states.

Utah and Arizona have passed legislation demanding the federal government turn over control of millions of acres of public acreage in those states. Utah's governor signed the bill, while Arizona's was vetoed by Gov. Jan Brewer. On Monday, Ken Ivory, President of the American Lands Council and the Utah legislator who led passage of that state's bill urged Idaho lawmakers take the same step toward managing public land in its borders. The Utah bill sets a 2014 deadline for the federal government to yield control of nearly 30 million acres. That total does not include national parks and monuments and wilderness.

About 64 percent of Idaho's 53 million acres is in federal control, 31 percent is in private hands and 5 percent is owned by the state, mostly for endowments for schools and other beneficiaries. Ivory sees this transfer as a possible solution that is big enough to take care of the nation's fiscal problems, free up resources for the state, and allow local representation, management and taxation, benefitting the environment, local economies and schools.

Ivory's assertion is based on Article 4 of the constitution, which he says the federal government has misread to claim they can do whatever they want with federal lands. In reality, he says, congress has an obligation to honor an earlier obligation to dispose of the property once the need to hold it in trust for the states to fund the Revolutionary War was no longer relevant. Their continued hold on what should be state property impinges upon states rights.

"Taxing the soil is an attribute of sovereignty, if you don’t have the right as a state to tax your property within your boarders you don’t have sovereignty," he said.

But, assuming Utah is successful in it's efforts to control public lands, will they be able to do so? Ivory says all of the relevant parties have gathered together and agreed that such a transfer of management would be possible, with some adjustments.

"There is definitely going to be a transition," he said. "No one pretends we can flip a switch."