Harry Reid, Inept, Crooked and Way over His Head
December 9, 2007
Editorial
Auctioning Off Nevada
As cornucopias go, it is hard to top what has been happening in Nevada. Local governments have been cashing in on the sale of federal lands to spare their taxpayers the tab for a raft of amenities that include parks and shooting ranges. That’s right: the federal government has auctioned off thousands of acres in the last decade under an unusual law that channels most of the proceeds into an account set aside for projects in Nevada.
It is federal spending that comes earmarked for environmental projects. But much of the money has paid for a wide array of urban and suburban projects: a county shooting park, picnic grounds, subsidies for schoolbooks and teachers’ salaries, expenses that local governments elsewhere pay for with local taxes or bond issues. The obvious question is why federal lands should be tapped like some desert A.T.M., forcing taxpayers in the 49 other states to subsidize the booming regional growth around Las Vegas.
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