Federal Land Management and Benefits for Education

The federal government is the largest landowner in the United States, controlling more than 660 million acres. This represents nearly 1/3 of the entire land mass of the United States and is equivalent to an area more than six times the size of California. Over 90 percent of federal land is located in western states. The vast majority of these federal lands were set aside with the understanding that they would be managed for multiple use which would include grazing, recreation, conservation, and sensible natural resource development for the good of the nation and local communities. However, over the years Congress has imposed layer upon layer of laws and regulations. In many cases, these regulations are unreasonable and unnecessarily burdensome and add little or nothing to responsibly managing these lands. As a result, managing the federal lands now cost the American taxpayer billions of dollars a year more than they produce in revenue.

Despite the enormous land holdings already under its control, the federal government continues to spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year to acquire additional land. In fact, over the past 10 years, federal land acquisition funding has averaged $347 million annually. Over the last forty years, the federal government has spent nearly $13 billion adding hundreds of thousands of acres to the federal estate. An area larger than the size of Florida has been added to the federal estate since John F. Kennedy was president.

One of the often overlooked effects of continued massive federal land ownership is the impact on public education in the West. Even though state and local taxes of western states, as a percentage of personal income, are as high as or higher than other states, there is a persistent shortfall in funding for public education in the West. Part of this can be attributed to the amazing growth the West is experiencing. On average, western states have more students per classroom than the other 37 states, with enrollment projected to increase dramatically over the next 10 years. In contrast, eastern states student enrollment figures are expected to remain generally stable or might decrease over the same period. An even larger factor in education funding problems for western states is their inability to generate tax revenue due to the vast amounts of federal lands within their jurisdiction. Every acre of federal land is an acre that cannot be taxed by local governments. Since public education is heavily dependent on state and local property tax revenues, western states are suffering due to an inability to assess property taxes on federal land.

To address this, many members of the Western Caucus have endorsed legislation known as “The Action Plan for Public Lands and Education”, or APPLE. APPLE is a western states initiative aimed at alleviating the shortfall in funding public education in the West. The act would authorize Western States to select five percent of BLM and Forest Service lands within their state to be sold or leased, with the generated revenue dedicated solely to public education. Similar land disposal mechanisms have been set up for specific purposes in other states (such as in Clark County Nevada).