Friday, May 19, 2006

King statements on land transfers are misleading

Guest opinion by Rep. Mike Simpson


By MIKE SIMPSON

A Republican, Rep. Mike Simpson represents Idaho's second congressional district, covering eastern and south-central Idaho.

Recently, Carole King and opponents to my Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act (CIEDRA) have made statements in letters and advertisements that I find perplexing and misleading. It is implied that because I am opposed to the president's proposal to sell public lands to fund the Secure Rural Schools Program that I should not include land transfers and exchanges in my CIEDRA bill.

Yes, I am opposed to the president's formulaic plan to sell federal lands for generic budget savings. Selling federal lands for budget offsets is unacceptable. As a member of the Budget and Appropriations Committees I successfully worked to remove that provision from the budget as I do not believe that the President's indiscriminate cookie cutter approach to selling 300,000 acres of federal lands is the appropriate mechanism for reducing the deficit.

In contrast, my locally developed CIEDRA legislation will transfer 163 acres of Sawtooth National Recreation Area (SNRA) lands adjacent to Stanley and approximately 3500 acres of BLM lands to Custer County and local public entities. These lands were selected after careful consideration by the Custer County commissioners, public hearings and public comment, and are designed to provide economic opportunities and public benefit for Custer County and its rural communities.

Custer County's 4,000 residents are burdened by the fact that nearly three million of its 3.1 million acres are controlled by federal agencies. As I've said many times, one only needs to speak to a county commissioner to realize that this grossly disproportionate public ownership causes a severe strain on their limited resources. It is the resident taxpayers who support the great influx of visitors each year that recreate and enjoy the federal lands in Custer County. Their taxes maintain and pay for roads, law enforcement, search and rescue, medical aid, infrastructure, facilities and other services that visitors require and use.

It is misleading for Ms. King and her CIEDRA opponents to attack me and my locally developed compromise legislation by comparing it to the president's wholesale approach for selling federal lands for budget savings. The 3,500 acres I am proposing to transfer have been carefully identified and vetted in public hearings and comments. Ms. King and her opposition group should just as well compare apples and oranges.

My stand against the president's broad proposal to sell public lands to cut the budget deficit is the right one and my support for a small number of carefully identified federal lands to be transferred to the residents of Custer County who are directly burdened by a vast amount of federal lands is equally correct. The two cannot be compared.




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