early graduation college
scholarships
dpa/se |
Committee on Military, Veterans' Affairs & Aviation |
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dpa |
Caucus and COW |
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Third Read |
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As Passed the House |
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SB 1129, as amended in the Military, Veterans’ Affairs & Aviation, creates a Military Airport Land Exchange Section within the State Land Department to facilitate the exchange of private lands in the vicinity of a military airport in this state for federal lands in this state.
In 1910, the United
States Congress passed the Arizona-New Mexico Enabling Act, which allowed
Arizona to become a state and granted Arizona land to be held in trust to
produce revenue for various public institutions. The Arizona State Land Department was established in 1915 to
manage state lands and resources to optimize economic return for the trust
beneficiaries.
Any modification to the Enabling Act requires action by the United States Congress. Through the years, Congress has amended the Enabling Act to allow Arizona more flexibility in managing and disposing of trust land. In the 1930’s, two acts of Congress authorized the state to exchange trust lands for other public or private lands. Although the state constitution was not amended to incorporate that authority for land exchanges, the state did enact statutes to provide for exchanges of trust land. Since then, the Department has exchanged land with the federal government and private landowners acting under statutory authorization.
In March 1990, the State Supreme Court held that without an amendment to the state constitution, the Legislature had no power to authorize trust land exchanges by statute. Since that decision, the Department has stopped land exchanges. Measures to amend the constitution to allow the Department to resume land exchanges were placed on the ballot in 1990, 1992, 1994 and 2000 but were defeated by Arizona voters.
In 2001, the legislature approved SCR 1004, which proposes an amendment to the state constitution that, if approved by Arizona voters, would allow the State Land Department to exchange state trust land for other public lands provided that necessary conditions are met.
· Makes an official declaration that it is the policy of the Legislature to promote the preservation of Military airports in this state.
· Defines high noise or accident potential zone, landowner, manager, military airport, section, subject property and territory in the vicinity of a military airport.
· Establishes the Military Airport Land Exchange Section (Section) within the State Land Department for the purpose of facilitating exchanges of federal land in this state for private land in territory in the vicinity of a military airport in this state.
· Provides that, subject to the availability of monies in the Military Airport Land Exchange Fund, the commissioner shall appoint a manager of the Section, and the manager shall hire employees as necessary to carry out the provisions of this chapter.
· Allows a landowner to apply to the Section for assistance in preparing a proposal to exchange the landowner’s land for land owned by a federal agency, if all or part of the landowner’s land is in a high noise or accident potential zone or if all of the following apply:
· The landowner’s land is undeveloped land.
· The landowner’s land is zoned for uses that are not compatible with the operation of a military airport as determined by the local jurisdiction.
· The landowner agrees to a rezoning of the landowner’s land to uses that are compatible with the operation of a military airport as a condition of an exchange proposed pursuant to this chapter.
· Outlines the requirements of the application that must be submitted to be considered eligible for assistance.
· Mandates that the Section will evaluate each application that it receives pursuant to this section and give written notice to the applicant of acceptance or rejection.
· Requires the Section, upon rejection of an application, to send a notice that states the reason or reasons for the rejection and that the rejection is an appealable agency action.
· Requires the Section, upon acceptance of an application, to send a notice that states that the section agrees to assist the landowner in preparing a proposal for the exchange of the landowner’s land for federal land.
· Requires the landowner to pay a fee for the services of the Section.
· Requires, upon approval of an application, the Section to do the following:
· Charge the landowner a fee for each acre of the subject property.
· Evaluate the suitability of the subject property for exchange with federal land.
· Coordinate with federal agencies to identify federal lands that are available and suitable for exchange for the subject property.
· Prepare an exchange proposal for the landowner’s review.
· Allows the section to do the following:
· Request a landowner to advance or incur costs of evaluations and studies that may be needed to prepare an exchange proposal including legal land surveys, title reports, appraisals, environmental assessments and cultural and biological investigations.
· Accept and spend grants, gifts and contributions from individuals, businesses, cities, towns, counties, other political subdivisions of the state, other state agencies, federal agencies and any other sources to hire staff and support the operations of the section.
· Present an exchange proposal to a federal agency, at the request of the landowner.
· Disburse monies in the Military Airport Land Exchange Fund to a federal agency that agrees to an exchange proposed under this chapter to cover costs incurred by the agency in preparing the exchange.
· States that the landowner is responsible for making all decisions and bearing all costs arising from an exchange proposed under this chapter.
· Establishes a Military Airport Land Exchange Fund consisting of monies appropriated by the legislature, fees collected and advanced costs.
· Requires all monies collected pursuant to this section to be deposited in this fund.
· States that monies in the fund are continuously appropriated and exempt from lapsing.
The strike-everything amendment to SB 1129 was further amended in the Committee of the Whole as follows:
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45th Legislature
Second Regular Session 3 May
3, 2002
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