Land Grab Threatens Beasts and Children

Across the political spectrum, the possible taking of 25,000 acres of Arizona State owned land, through the designation of Grand Canyon Watershed as a National Monument, is creating concern in Arizonans who support public education.

Although the president has claimed that education is the civil rights issue of our time, the continual acquisition of public land is eroding Arizona’s State Trust Land holdings which in part, provide funding to rural schools and other social services for Arizona’s poorest communities.

According to the Arizona State Land Department, the new national monument will lock up over 25,000 acres of state trust land.

In February 2015, Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar joined fellow representatives in urging President Obama to refrain from unilaterally designating 1.7 million acres in the Grand Canyon Watershed as a National Monument. Many viewed the designation as the largest public land grab on behalf of a few private wealthy organizations.

At the time, Gosar alleged that the groups have been pushing for the president to circumvent Congress by employing the Antiquities Act in order to appease the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity by “prevent energy development, timber harvesting, grazing, mining and different types of recreation on this massive swath of land.

According to Gosar, in one week alone, the president designated three new national monuments in Colorado, Hawaii and Illinois. In Arizona, the grab would devastate the already financially struggling schools.

We know that per pupil spending across the states follows the cost of living closely based on numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Because Arizona places No. 6, on the top ten list of distressed communities in the U.S., according to a new study by the Economic Innovation Group (EIG), property values, upon which the cost of living is based in part, are low. As a result, more taxable properties are desperately needed and a grab of Arizona’s State Trust Land holdings would be devastating.

As Gosar notes in a statement released in February, “Locking up 1.7 million acres in the Grand Canyon Watershed would be devastating for local economies. Such action would also erode the extensive cooperation and success that federal and state agencies in Arizona have achieved to date. Worse yet, this land grab targets nearly 7,000 acres currently in private ownership and thousands of acres of State Trust Land that rural communities are counting on to provide important revenues for education and other critical services.”

Gosar continued, “I will not sit idle while extremist environmental groups that have no understanding of the real world try to ruin the state I love. When more land is locked up by the federal government, real people suffer and opportunities for future prosperity are reduced. For every acre of land declared public, there is an acre of private land lost, and in Arizona; only about 18% of the land remaining in the state is privately held.”

During the last Legislative session, Arizona State Rep. Bob Thorpe (R) was not sitting idly by and had hoped to raise more money for the State’s schools by assessing property taxes on federally held lands. Instead of the $35 mil in annual PILT payments, the State could levy a small tax. Thorpe’s bill would have generated $1.5 billion in taxes collected from the federal government.

As it stands, because the Federal government holds so much land in Arizona and other western states, Arizona kids are disproportionally hurt compared to kids like those in eastern states like Maryland, and New York. This inequity is even more egregious when you consider the fact that a sizeable proportion of kids living in rural Arizona are minorities including many Native children, whose families do not live on reservations.

Bonding for school infrastructure in rural communities is unthinkable. The rural communities, often surrounded by federal lands have little opportunity to expand industry to enrich the residents so that they could afford funding vehicles like overrides and bonds. While much of the school funding provided by Arizona is designated for capital improvements, new schools are impossible to justify economically due to the small populations. The school situation is such that just this past year, Arizona State Sen. Carlyle Begay (D), a former school teacher and leader in the Navajo Nation, fought for and won the empowerment scholarships for Native children to attend the few private schools in rural areas.

So while State representatives scramble to come up with immediate and long term opportunities for Arizona’s kids and ways to preserve their sometimes antiquated school houses, the Obama administration is considering using the Antiquities Act to strip them of what little they have.

The harm done to children is being done in the name of the beast. Ironically, the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) is opposed to the Watershed because of how it will impact the management and care of those beasts.

Gosar vows to “continue to oppose this misguided effort and protect the interests of rural communities.” He called for any future designation of any acre within this watershed to be based on public input and approved by Congress.

Gosar can’t and shouldn’t do it alone. There are local efforts under way; hopefully locals will move soon and before the president attempts another unilateral grab.