[az-leader] Urgent Alert
- From: Janice Miano <jmiano@xxxxxxxx>
- To: az-leader@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2002 16:48:19 -0700
IF YOU HAVE NOT CALLED ALREADY, PLEASE CALL SENATORS TODAY AND ASK THEM
TO
OPPOSE SB1274! THIS BILL IS MOVING FAST. THANKS!
There are approximately 9.3 million acres of state trust lands in
Arizona.
When Congress passed Arizona's Enabling Act, it provided the state with
these lands for the support of various public institutions, primarily the
common or public schools. State trust lands on the periphery of urban
areas
are managed primarily for disposition for development. Rural lands are
retained and managed primarily for grazing (over 90 percent of state
trust
lands are leased for grazing.)
The Arizona Senate is considering a bill that would make it much more
difficult for conservation interests to bid on those grazing leases. It
makes it more costly to buy so-called improvements -- fences, structures,
etc., it limits the time frame for coming up with the dollars, and it
limits
what can be done with the improvements.
Please ask your senator to oppose SB1274 for the following reasons:
· It is premature at best. The State Land Department has drug its feet
and
refused to recognize that it is in the best interest of the trust to
consider other applications for grazing leases -- even those that offered
much more money. Now that the Supreme Court has told the Department to
do
so and before it has even considered one conservation grazing lease, the
legislature is erecting additional roadblocks.
· The bill will discourage leases that are intended for restoration
purposes. According to the Forest Guardians decision which came out of
the
Supreme Court Last year, "...restoration and preservation are already and
must continue to be considered legitimate uses for land that, according
to
the Commissioner's classification, has no higher and better use than
grazing. Otherwise, grazing lessees could continue to graze stock until
the
land is damaged and its value destroyed." The court went on to say," The
Department, in other words, cannot use the classification system in such
a
manner as to discourage or automatically reject those who seek to lease
grazing lands for restorative purposes."
· It is not in the best interest of the State Trust Land Beneficiaries --
primarily the public schools -- to discourage competition. Competition
for
these leases will result in more dollars to the Trust and the Trust
beneficiaries. Grazing leases currently generate very little for the
Trust.
In FY2000, there were 8.4 million acres of state trust land with grazing
leases; these lands generated only $2.1 million for the trust
beneficiaries
or about 25 cents per acre. . In an April 1997 Performance Audit of the
State Land Department conducted by the Auditor General's office, there
was a
finding that "? promoting competition for available leases could result
in
additional revenue for trust beneficiaries."
· As if all this were not bad enough, the bill now says you have to buy
the
improvements before you get the lease and then it says you cannot change,
eliminate, etc. those improvements. If a lessee owns the improvements,
shouldn't that lessee be able to remove or change them as needed.
Please call or email your senator today and ask him/her to oppose this
bill!
If you're outside the Phoenix area, you can call your legislator's office
toll free at 1-800-352-8404. In the Phoenix area call (602) 542-3559
(Senate) or (602) 542-4221 (House). Correspondence goes to 1700 W.
Washington, Phoenix, AZ 85007-2890. To email legislators go to
http://www.arizonasenate.org/members.html for the senate and to
http://www.426-hemi.com/cars/azhouse.htm for the house. If you are not
sure
who your legislators are, please go to www.vote-smart.org or call the
House
or Senate information desks.
Sandy Bahr
Conservation Outreach Director
Sierra Club - Grand Canyon Chapter
202 E. McDowell Rd, Suite 277
Phoenix, AZ 85004
Phone (602) 253-8633 Fax (602) 258-6533
grand.canyon.chapter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
________________________________________________________________
GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO!
Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less!
Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/.
You are subscribed to AZ-LEADER. To post to this mailing list, simply send
email to az-leader@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe, send email to
az-leader-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
Other related posts:
- » [az-leader] Urgent Alert
