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SALT LAKE CITY — Senate Minority Leader Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake City, says Utah has a vested interest in keeping control of its public lands, but a bill to prioritize leasing over selling lands stalled in a Senate committee Wednesday.
Davis' SB105 calls for leasing lands to be a priority and sets a separate procedure for the sale of those lands.
The Salt Lake City lawmaker said he believes the bill would help the state keep public lands and prevent back and forth trading between state and private ownership.
The measure failed to advance out of the Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee with a tied vote.
Davis said changing Utah's policy on dispensing lands came to mind when the Legislature began discussing the relocation of the Utah State Prison in Draper.
"Once you sell a piece of land, you're either going to have to buy it back for more money or condemn it to be able to get it back," he said. "If we lease it or at least hold it … the state still has property that it doesn't have to purchase in the future."
Public lands, Davis explained, are property given to the state for a specific purpose, and the state still may hold onto that purpose even if it doesn't currently hold the land itself.
Sen. David Hinkins, R-Orangeville, was one of the primary opponents of the measure and voted against SB105.
"I think if there's ground there and we’re not using it, we need to sell it so it goes to beneficial use of the people in the county," Hinkins said.
After the meeting, Davis declared that "the bill's not dead."
"I’m going to have that conversation with the nay votes and try if I can to get them to change their votes and try to get it marked up again," he said. Email: rmorgan@deseretnews.com
