Local government perspectives of federal land management in Nevada

Abstract

The impact of federal land ownership and management is a particularly contentious issue in the Western United States. Perhaps most significantly impacted is the State of Nevada, which is 87 percent federally owned. Over the last two decades, there has been some movement towards state-centered federalism. Former President Clinton was an advocate of “reinventing government”, which in part entailed a larger role for state and local governments in the policy-making and implementation process. Presidential Executive Order 12132, issued by Clinton in 1999, required federal agencies to develop “federalism summary impact statements” when creating new policies or altering existing rules. Our analysis is a bottom-up look at the impacts of federalism in Nevada counties. County officials report that they are not adequately consulted by federal land managers and that a lack of consultation impacts on the local planning process and represents a cost to local businesses and individual taxpayers. An analysis of Payments in Lieu of Taxes indicates that with limited—yet notable—exceptions, the federal government pays a larger sum to counties than would be collected if the federal lands were privatized.