As you were parting the veil of nostalgia and we were looking back on our own youth, you are so right, southern Nevada today is profoundly different. The mantra of our school years was that Nevada was the least populated State, that there was one person for every square mile, that everybody could be seated in the Los Angeles Coliseum for a sporting event, every person in Nevada.
Well, that is not the reality of today. I remember the first time that I heard the word "smog" sometime in the early 1950s, and I thought, well, what is this? I didn't understand it. I think people in Nevada did not comprehend what we were talking about.
Well, that was then, and today is now. And managing this unprecedented growth in a manner that sustains development and provides and promotes a healthy environment is perhaps the greatest challenge that we face in southern Nevada. The growth has been extraordinary, as we all know, unprecedented. No other part of the country has experienced this level of growth, and it becomes a real challenge -- traffic congestion, school overcrowding, infrastructure delivery, air quality, land use planning are a handful of issues that currently confront community leaders.
I think, Mr. Chairman, you are extremely wise to convene this hearing in a city hall because primarily those issues affecting our growth are decisions which local community leaders, our local elected officials, will make. But I think you are also quite correct in indicating that because of the extraordinary presence of Federal agencies -- the 87 percent that you made reference to -- there is a role for the Federal Government to play in a partnership relationship. You and I have begun that role with the passage of legislation which we sponsored last year, the Southern Nevada Public Lands Act, which provides a unique framework, the primary purpose of which was to strengthen the role of local government planning with respect to any disposal of BLM lands the metropolitan area. That has not historically been a dialogue that has matured as we had hoped, and with this legislation, none of those parcels can be disposed of without the concurrence of the affected local political subdivision, and all of the proceeds from the sale of those parcels remain here in Nevada; five percent, as you know, toward our State School Fund; ten percent to the Southern Nevada Water Authority, and the remaining eighty-five percent either for the acquisition of additional environmentally-sensitive lands for recreational purposes, or to enhance and improve those existing Federal recreational facilities which clearly have an impact on a quality of life issue which I think is so important for southern Nevada.
So I am delighted to be here with you, and I would like to share a part of the program, but I'm not going to be able to stay for the full time, Mr. Chairman.
Again I commend you on your leadership. I think this is terribly important for all of us in southern Nevada, and I look forward to working with you and our colleagues who speak next on this important growth-related issue that affects our State and our community.