North state officials criticize Bush land-sale plan

RENO - Northern Nevada officials have criticized a Bush administration plan to siphon profits from the sale of government land in Nevada to offset mounting federal deficits.

They said the proposal threatens a successful program that designates auction proceeds for park improvements, Lake Tahoe restoration and the purchase of environmentally sensitive land across Nevada.

"That money has been critical in helping us," said Karen Mullen, director of the Washoe County Parks and Recreation Department.

"I would hope we can keep as much of that money as possible so we can continue to do the work we need to do here in Nevada."

Under the federal Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act, proceeds from land sales in the Las Vegas area have been used to protect thousands of acres of sensitive land from development in northern Nevada.

Last year, Interior Secretary Gale Norton approved about $11 million to purchase 18,737 acres near the Black Rock Desert, 100 miles north of Reno.

The acreage featured private parcels surrounded by large swaths of federal land in the Granite Range, Buffalo Hills and Wall Canyon.

Conservationists had feared the land could be subdivided and sold for homes.

In 2003, the land act was amended to provide for the federal government's $300 million share of environmental restoration projects at Lake Tahoe.

While that money probably is safe, Bush's proposal could threaten plans to acquire sensitive land at Lake Tahoe, said John Singlaub, executive director of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.

The proposed $75 million purchase of the 770-acre Incline Lake property east of Lake Tahoe is one potentially endangered project, Singlaub said.

"I'm more fearful this may impact our ability to acquire some lands up here that we're hoping for," he said.

Nevada's congressional delegation has come out against Bush's plan and pledged to defeat it.

The Bush administration argues the federal land sales in booming Las Vegas are raising more money than Congress imagined when the land act was passed in 1998.

Based on White House projections, at least $700 million a year could be deposited in the treasury rather than spent in Nevada. The White House has estimated the federal deficit will be $427 billion this year.