Three Lands Projects Could Come This Way

If Idaho ends up moving forward with its Federal Lands Task Force proposals to experiment with new ways of managing federal lands, three of the five big 15-year pilot projects will be in North Idaho.

Priest Lake would be one of the most unusual. There, one side of the lake is federal land, the other, state land. Under the proposal, the whole thing would be managed together, through the joint efforts of the Forest Service, the state Department of Lands, and the state Parks and Recreation Department.

“From day one, most people thought, `Hey, that’s a good place for a pilot project,”’ said John McGee, coordinator of the state-sponsored lands group.

If the three agencies can agree on a plan for joint management, that project might not require specific authorization from Congress.

Existing federal laws might also allow for the plan proposed by the St. Joe Valley Association, which would operate the St. Joe district of the Panhandle National Forest under stewardship contracts. That’s already allowed under a law Congress passed in 1998, designed to help restore ecosystems.

Congressional legislation would be required for the third project, which would set up a collaborative management system in 2.7 million acres of the Clearwater and Nez Perce national forests. There, the plan calls for bringing disparate interests together to make the management decisions, including tribes, environmentalists, recreationists, industry and others.

“Everyone’s going to want a seat at the table,” McGee said.

The effort that began in 1996 amid cries for the state to take over federal land has evolved into a push to just try new ways to manage federal land in Idaho.

“You’ve got to test it,” McGee said. “We can sit around a table and talk about these things ad nauseam, but until you’re out there trying these things, you’ll never know if they work.”

She finally got the chair

Sen. Marguerite McLaughlin, D-Orofino, served 22 years in the Legislature, but as a member of the minority party, never got to be a committee chairman - until she headed the bipartisan Joint Legislative Oversight Committee.

The group, which has a co-chairman from each of the two major parties, commissions detailed studies called performance evaluations, which investigate how state agencies are functioning.

At McLaughlin’s final JLOC meeting, as she retired from the state Senate, she admitted, “It’s been an experience I wanted for a long time in the Legislature - to be a chairman of a committee.

“We weren’t able to do that politically, but we were on this committee,” she said.

But she doesn’t claim it

Although she’s thrilled to get a seat on the Legislature’s most powerful committee, Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, wasn’t as happy with the headline flub in this newspaper that accidentally elevated her to chairman.

“I thought, `Oh, they’re going to kill me,”’ Keough said.

The new chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which combines with House Appropriations to make the key joint budget committee, is actually Sen. Dean Cameron of Rupert.

“I was going to cut that out and send it to Dean, and ask for his forgiveness,” said Keough.

Northern numbers grow

Keough isn’t the only new member of the joint budget committee. Also joining the ranks on the House side is Rep. Wayne Meyer, R-Rathdrum.

Continuing their service are Sen. Clyde Boatright, R-Rathdrum, and Reps. Jim Clark, R-Hayden, and Don Pischner, R-Coeur d’Alene.

Sen. Jack Riggs, R-Coeur d’Alene, was squeezed off the Transportation Committee by a more-senior senator from the south this year, but landed a coveted spot on the Senate Resources Committee instead, along with newly elected Sen. Skip Brandt, R-Kooskia.

One death makes a big difference

Idaho’s projected state budget surplus this year was already staggering, at more than $280 million. But now comes the news that it’s been bumped up to more than $300 million - thanks to one wealthy Idahoan who died.

The state Tax Commission received an unexpected $21.5 million windfall this year from a single multimillion-dollar estate. That’s state estate taxes only, and doesn’t count the millions the estate also contributed to federal coffers.

Coincidentally, Idaho’s budget laws just changed in July, sending estate tax receipts to the state general fund. Prior to that, estate taxes were tabbed to fund environmental quality efforts.

The single, giant payment is twice as much as the state typically collects from all estate taxes in a year.

The Tax Commission won’t name the wealthy taxpayer, due to confidentiality laws regarding tax returns.