By KIRSTEN WAITE
Utah’s school children could now have millions of dollars more for their education.
Rep. Jim Hansen pushed a bill through the House Wednesday that will swap 138,000 acres of federal lands in Utah, plus $63 million dollars for 441,000 acres of currently unaccessable school trust lands and minerals, according to a news release issued by Hansen’s office.
Hansen proposed the bill in mid-May and it was passed by unanimous consent only Wednesday morning, said Kimo Kaloi, a member of Hansen’s staff.
Gov. Mike Leavitt was one of the main originators of the bill in conjunction with Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt.
“The bill was basically Gov. Leavitt’s proposal. He worked this out with Bruce Babbitt. It was a deal they both signed. They didn’t do it with very much input from anyone else,” said Gary Griffith, legislative staff for the Subcommittee on National and Public Lands chaired by Hansen.
The Utah Schools and Lands Exchange Act of 1998 has a companion bill currently going through the Senate. It is expected to pass the Senate and then be immediately signed by President Clinton by mid-July or Aug., Griffith said.
“He (Clinton) said that it (the Grand-Staircase National Monument) wouldn’t hurt the children of Utah. By passing this, he’s saying — look we’re helping them out now. They felt compelled to do something,” Griffith said.
In the monthly governor’s press conference Tuesday afternoon, Gov. Leavitt said the agreement is being well-recieved because it is fair.
“It’s clear by the nature of the support that the agreement has garnered from the school trust land, who managed the land, from the environmental communities, from the federal agencies, from the state agencies, from legislators as well as others that it is a very well-constructed agreement,” Leavitt said.
Hansen said the land swap has been a long battle and Tuesday’s approval is a step in the right direction.
“This legislation is critical to the school children of Utah to insure the financial stability of our education system. This problem has plagued our education lands for decades and today we took the first major step in trading these lands out of the Monument, National Parks and National Forests,” Hansen said.
Gov. Leavitt will testify before the Senate committee on Thursday about the companion bill.
“We’re half way there on something that would have seemed almost impossible a month ago,” Leavitt said.
However, Griffith said the entire war hasn’t been won yet since there are more trust lands not included in the current agreement that must still be assessed and traded.
“There is still a huge problem out there with BLM (Bureau of Land Management) lands. This is a huge step in the right direction but it doesn’t solve the problem completely,” Griffith said. “It’s hard to determine the money value. That’s a very difficult issue and it could take years to help.”
