In Our View: Government Good Steward

At a quick glance, the headline was worth little more than a shrug: “Clark County gets $1,330 from Interior Department.” Yet the latest payment in lieu of taxes to the local county provides an opportunity to examine an issue that is of national importance and resonates particularly loudly in Western states. That is because the bureaucratic wrangling that leads to the payments touches upon growing complaints about federal ownership of land, efforts by some people to have that land turned over to states, and self-determination by the people of the Western United States.