First Regular Session
              Sixty-ninth General Assembly
                    STATE OF COLORADO
                                                 INTRODUCED
                                                           
                                                           
 LLS NO. R13-1000.01 Esther van Mourik x4215      SJR13-031
                   SENATE SPONSORSHIP
 Renfroe, 
 
                    HOUSE SPONSORSHIP
 Sonnenberg, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Senate Committees
 House Committees
 
 
 State, Veterans, & Military Affairs
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                  SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 13-031
       Concerning a request to the federal government to cede
            title to agricultural public lands to the state.
       
       
            WHEREAS, A state enabling act is a congressional act that admits
       a state into the union and outlines the agreements related to admission;
       and
       
            WHEREAS, Colorado's enabling act was approved on March 3,
       1875; and
       
            WHEREAS, A recurring theme throughout Colorado's enabling act
       is that Colorado was to be admitted to the union on equal footing with the
       original states in all respects whatsoever; and
       
            WHEREAS, President Ulysses S. Grant's proclamation admitting
       Colorado into the union on August 1, 1876, also mentions the admission
       of Colorado on an equal footing with the original states; and
       
            WHEREAS, Colorado is not on equal footing with the original
       states because there is a higher percentage of federal land ownership in
       Colorado compared to the original states; and
       
            WHEREAS, The federal government owns an average of fifty-one
       and nine-tenths percent of the land in thirteen western states, compared
       to four and one-tenth percent in the remaining states; and
       
            WHEREAS, As part of the effort to set Colorado on equal footing
       compared to the original states, section 12 of Colorado's enabling act
       provides that "five per centum of the proceeds of the sales of agricultural
       public lands lying within said state, which shall be sold by the United
       States subsequent to the admission of said state into the Union, after
       deducting all the expenses incident to the same, shall be paid to the said
       state for the purpose of making such internal improvements within said
       state as the legislature thereof may direct; provided, that this section shall
       not apply to any lands disposed of under the homestead laws of the
       United States, or to any lands now or hereafter reserved for public or
       other uses"; and
       
            WHEREAS, A 1934 federal law regarding grazing districts set
       forth the assumption that these lands would ultimately be disposed of by
       the United States; and 
       
            WHEREAS, The enabling act was considered a solemn trust
       obligation; and
       
            WHEREAS, The lands were never sold by the United States; and
       
            WHEREAS, In 1976, Congress changed these terms with the
       "Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976", which declared
       United States policy is that public lands be retained in federal ownership
       unless disposal of a particular parcel will serve the national interest; and
       
            WHEREAS, This change in terms is seen as an abandonment of
       the solemn trust obligation that resulted in an estimated fourteen million
       dollar loss in public education funding for western states; and
       
            WHEREAS, Colorado may not assess property taxes on federal
       lands. The estimated annual impact of this property tax prohibition on all
       western lands is over four billion dollars; and
       
            WHEREAS, Public education relies heavily on state and local
       property tax revenues; and
       
            WHEREAS, Colorado's inability to properly fund education is
       directly related to the high level of federal land ownership in the state;
       and
       
            WHEREAS, On May 13, 2004, the Colorado state board of
       education adopted a resolution that endorses an initiative seeking just
       compensation from the federal government for the impact its ownership
       of lands within western states has on the ability of the state to fund public
       education; and
       
            WHEREAS, In this era of economic uncertainty, Colorado must
       hold the United States to its earlier trust agreement to sell its agricultural
       public lands; now, therefore,
       
            Be It Resolved by the Senate of the Sixty-ninth General Assembly
       of the State of Colorado, the House of Representatives concurring herein:
       
            That, in order to effectuate section 12 of Colorado's enabling act
       and to place the state on an equal footing with the original states in the
       union in all respects whatsoever, the United States should cede or
       extinguish title to all agricultural public lands in Colorado and transfer
       title to the state of Colorado; and
       
            That the state board of land commissioners should manage such
       agricultural public lands to provide for the prudent protection, sale,
       exchange, or other disposition of such agricultural public lands in order
       to produce reasonable and consistent income over time.
       
            Be It Further Resolved, That copies of this Joint Resolution be
       sent to Governor John Hickenlooper, the Colorado State Board of
       Education, the State Board of Land Commissioners, and Colorado's
       congressional delegation.