Posted on 07/05/2010 12:11:36 PM PDT by Willie Green
MOOSE, Wyo.For Sale: Two square miles of Grand Teton National Park.
Majestic views of the Teton Range. Prime location for luxury resort, home development. Pristine habitat for moose, elk, wolves, grizzlies.
Price: $125 million. Call: Gov. Dave Freudenthal.
Wyoming is trying to force the Interior Department to trade land, minerals or mineral royalties for 1,366 acres it owns within the majestic park. If the foot-dragging feds don't agree to a dealsoonFreudenthal threatens to put a For Sale sign on the property.
Wyoming has owned the land since statehood in 1890, when the federal government set aside land in new Western states to be mined, logged or leased to raise money for public education. Wyoming kept its so-called "school sections" after Grand Teton National Park was established in 1950.
The state has tried for a decade to negotiate some kind of trade. Saying that his patience is running out, Freudenthal, a Democrat, sent an ultimatum recently to park Superintendent Mary Gibson Scott.
"I think he wants to pound the (for sale) sign in himself," said Ed Grant, director of the Office of State Lands and Investments.
Wyoming gets just $3,000 a year from the land by leasing it for cattle grazing. Sold with the proceeds invested at 3 percent, the land easily could bring in $3.75 million a year.
The state constitution requires state officials to manage state lands for maximum profit. Their oaths of office Advertisement require them to act.
"If it's to recreate on, or if it's a new ski lodge, highest and best use," said Susan Child, deputy director of the state lands office. "It's obviously not grazing."
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Bwahahahaha!
Outdated old rag! Who needs it?
/s
Immanent Domain. US Supreme Court said the governments can take lands for any reason and sell them. All they have to do is pay the federal government the going rate and keep the rest.
Just as an aside, this shows the wisdom of federalism. In Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas, it's hard just to gather enough kids together to have any kind of school; public school is the only sensible arrangement. In Rhode Island, Maryland, and even New Jersey, private schools could take over all education within a year, with no child left behind; public school is the least sensible arrangement.
However, there's at least one ski lodge in the Black Hills, surrounded by park land, that's just not very successful. Don't be surprised if the developer's promise of 'another Aspen' doesn't pan out.
They are destroying the entire Gulf of Mexico, both federal and state owned property, and private property, like a bunch of idiots.
We've got to start a movement to strip the federal government of possession of property beyond their immediate needs.
I was thinking something right along those lines for all revenue. If states put windfall revenues into any kind of fund and lived off of the interest those funds could have grown quite large over the decades. Maybe I am economically naive to think that that would work.
Someone can buy it and It may come in handy and be used as a refuge like Count Zinzendorf used his land to protect the believers from Catholic persecution.
An archeological team, digging in Washington DC, has uncovered 10,000 year
old bones and fossil remains of what is believed to be the first federal land
management official.
Hey, maybe the Mexican Drug Gangs who now control federal lands 50 miles south of Phoenix, Arizona might want to buy a section of the Grand Tetons. Obama would likely endorse THAT quickly!
I laughed at your post about the Mexican drug gangs, then I thought about it and began to get nervous. It’s goofy enough to happen.
Maybe also a group of wealthy jihadists will buy it!Build a tourist trap as a front for paramilitary recruiting and training! LOL.
I am getting nevous!!
ROTFLMAO! no.
>Immanent Domain.
Its “Eminent domain,” not “immanet” which means nothing.
Thank you for the post.
The state of Texas does that. We have a rainy day fund financed from severance taxes.
Social Security was supposed to be that kind of thing. If all the money collected for it had been kept in an interest bearing fund would it be going bankrupt? I think seniors would be quite comfortable now in spite of the baby boomers coming into retirement. I don’t know all the actual numbers so I could be wrong.
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