Utah APPLE legislation goes before Congress
Utah legislators have received backing from the Western States Coalition to bring the APPLE Initiative before the U.S. Congress.
The APPLE initiative is legislation intended to provide restitution for money lost in the designation of public lands.
The Action Plan for Public Lands and Education is sponsored by Utah Speaker of the House Marty Stephens (R-Ogden), Rep. Stephen Urquhart (R-St. George) and Sen. Tom Hatch (R-Panguitch).
After analyzing Utah’s public education problems, the legislators noticed something was amiss.
Urquhart said, “On the one hand, our analysis showed no other state tries harder than Utah to fund public education — if effort is measured by the percentage of the state budget devoted to public education. On the other hand, our analysis showed no other state falls shorter than Utah — if effort is measured by per-pupil funding.”
While attributing part of the problem to Utah’s high birth rate (Utah has the highest birth rate per capita in the nation, according to the Legislature’s Web site, www.le.state.ut.us), the representatives noticed another unsettling correlation between low per-pupil funding in the West and the percentage of land that is federally owned.
Stephens noticed that, regardless of birth rate, every other western state is similarly struggling to fund education. Western states are sliding toward the basement in terms of increasing per-pupil funding, compared to others, Urquhart said.
Western states are disproportionately burdened by federally owned lands.
In the West, the federal government owns more than half (52 percent) of all land. The federal government owns just 4 percent of all land in the other 37 states, Urquhart said.
“By our scorecard, federal land ownership in the West steals billions of dollars from our schoolchildren by depriving us of promised proceeds from land sales, property taxes and mineral royalties,” he said. “To give you numbers, we calculate federal ownership deprives the West of $14 billion in immediate revenues and $6 billion annually.”
Every state in the nation uses state land taxes to fund public education. But the West is crippled in this sense, Urquhart said. The revenues that would normally be received from taxes in other states are instead directed toward federal programs.
The APPLE Initiative has gained increasing momentum in recent months.
“We presented APPLE to legislative leaders from the other western states. Those leaders enthusiastically and unanimously came on board, understanding that their education-funding puzzles cannot be solved without the missing revenues from federal lands,” Urquhart said.
He said the next step is to convert western congressional leaders to APPLE.
The last step is for Congress to act. Urquhart said this depends largely on “if the West speaks with one voice. Any time an eastern member of Congress needs something from a westerner, the conversation should turn to APPLE. When presidential candidates campaign in the West in 2004, they should be pressed on APPLE.”
If passed in Congress, the APPLE Initiative will indirectly affect USU. Presently about half of the state budget goes toward public education. With less burden placed on public education, funds would be freed up for higher education.
To find out more, see the “APPLE Initiative” link at www.le.state.ut.us.
–jordan@cc.usu.edu