Report: Taking Over Public Lands Not a Money Maker for Utah

In response to the Report on Utah’s Transfer of Public Lands Act (H.B. 148) presented to the Utah State Legislature Interim Committees today, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance Executive Director Scott Groene released the following statement:

“In today’s report, the state of Utah was forced to admit that their proposal to take control of federal public lands is not a money maker for the state and will not help fund Utah schools.

“Governor Herbert and the Utah legislature should have investigated how much money Utah would lose in a land transfer six months ago, before they passed a law demanding that the federal government hand over 30 million acres of public lands to the state.

“Today’s report –along with the state’s 22 lawsuits against the federal government over RS 2477 issues — demonstrates that Governor Herbert and the Utah legislature are wasting legislative time and taxpayer money on a fool’s errand.

“This is not a balanced approach to public lands issues; it’s an idea so radical that voters in Arizona just last week shot down a similar proposal by a 2 to 1 margin. The Utah legislature should similarly drop this idea.”