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ENLARGE
Six states and 31 counties won a battle last week to have geothermal rents and royalties return to them for the 2010 fiscal year, but the war with both the federal and state governments wages on.
The U.S. House of Representa-tives passed on Tuesday the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2010 that will restore need money, specifically to the counties. This provision to return geothermal money is retroactive and ensures 50 percent of the royalties go to the state, 25 percent to the counties and 25 percent to the federal government. President Barack Obama signed the bill on Thursday.
A proponent of the bill, Congressman Dean Heller (R-Nev.), abstained from voting because he was in Las Vegas for former Gov. Kenny Guinn's governor. However, Heller's spokesman Stewart Bybee said the two-term congressman was set to cast an aye vote.
“Congressman Heller would have supported the Defense Supplemental Appropriations Bill which also included the geothermal royalty fix,” Bybee said.
Nevada's congressional delegation, however, continues to work to protect the counties' share in future years. The Supplemental Appropriations Act only covers Oct. 1, 2009, to Sept. 30. The congressmen want a permanent solution, however.
Federal money grab
While Sens. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and John Ensign (R-Nev.) and Heller tried to include — on numerous occasions — language on several bills or amendments to restore the money, the initial money grab probably should have never occurred because of an oversight.
H.R. (House Resolution) 2996 was tacked on to a Department of the Interior appropriations bill in late 2009 to have all money derived from sales, bonuses, rentals and royalties under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 revert to the federal government as originally provided in the Geothermal Act of 1970.
That left the counties in the cold, looking from the outside because the federal government successfully succeeded in snatching money.
At the time of the passage last fall, Tim Josi, president of the National Association of Counties Western Interstate Region, stated, “The recent passage of the FY2010 Interior Appropriations Bill effectively redirected the county geothermal revenue sharing funding back to the United States treasury.”
Churchill County officials, along with their counterparts in other Western counties and states, shifted into panic mode once they discovered what the new bill would mean to their budgets. Comptroller Alan Kalt said Churchill County could lose $25,000 to $40,000 per month based on the energy produced or as high as $100,000 for the quarter.
According to Reid's Washington office, the bill will be implemented once legislative procedures are completed.
“Nevada counties that develop geothermal energy will see their revenues restored, rural Nevadans will continue to have access to affordable home financing and funding for an important conservation program will be provided,” Reid said in a statement after the House of Representatives' vote.
Ensign also weighed on the passage, which he and Reid expected to be included in a supplemental spending bill months ago.
“The passing of this legislation was crucial,” Ensign added. “Ensuring that our counties receive their share of geothermal royalties was very important to me and will go a long way toward helping many communities that have been struggling with Nevada's very difficult economic situation.
“This legislation will inject hundreds of thousands of dollars back into towns that should have never been without this money in the first place.”
Frustrating delays
Waiting for the House to pass the Supplemental Appropriations Act frustrated local governments, especially counties that rely on geothermal royalties and rent money to supplement their budgets.
“If the bill had not passed, we would have slowed down the funding of capital improvement projects like the new juvenile probation building and Parks and Recreation, and the repairing of equipment in the road department,” Kalt pointed out.
Before the House took action last week, County Manager Brad Goetsch said he felt someone was trying to prevent the vote from taking place.
Originally, the bill passed the Senate and then reverted back to the House for reconciliation.
“They can push through healthcare in record time, why are we sitting on this,” Commissioner Norm Frey said six days before the bill's passage.
Heller also felt Frey's frustration days before the bill's passage.
“I understand and share the frustration of the residents of Churchill County,” he stated in response to an e-mail sent by the Lahontan Valley News. “The legislative process is often slow and difficult. However, I continue to work with Congressman (Mike) Thompson from California and Nevada's senators to reinstate the revenue share for geothermal royalties. I remain cautiously optimistic that this issue can be resolved this year.”
The situation was becoming annoying to Jeff Fontaine, executive director of the Nevada Association of Counties, which is composed of county government officials and represents all 17 Nevada counties.
Four days before passage, NACO had approved sending a letter to the 312 geothermal-producing counties to organize and align them to contact their congressional delegations to approve the bill.
To add more insult to the process, Churchill County received a letter in May from the U.S. Department of Interior's Minerals Management Services demanding remittance of an overpayment of $182,054.
According to the letter, “The Fiscal Year 2010 Interior appropriations Act repealed the authority of MMS to issue the payments. Therefore the payments were not authorized and currently are debts owed to the Untied States.”
Kalt said the county is in the process of negotiating the repayment, which will come out of the budget, with the Department of the Interior.
While some action has successfully progressed throughout the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, Goetsch and Fontaine said the next hurdle will be against the State of Nevada for giving excessive tax breaks to geothermal companies wanting to build in the Silver State.
The state's money grab
The State of Nevada has taken geothermal money away from the counties and continues to do so. Later this week we find out how local officials respond to this.
The U.S. House of Representa-tives passed on Tuesday the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2010 that will restore need money, specifically to the counties. This provision to return geothermal money is retroactive and ensures 50 percent of the royalties go to the state, 25 percent to the counties and 25 percent to the federal government. President Barack Obama signed the bill on Thursday.
A proponent of the bill, Congressman Dean Heller (R-Nev.), abstained from voting because he was in Las Vegas for former Gov. Kenny Guinn's governor. However, Heller's spokesman Stewart Bybee said the two-term congressman was set to cast an aye vote.
“Congressman Heller would have supported the Defense Supplemental Appropriations Bill which also included the geothermal royalty fix,” Bybee said.
Nevada's congressional delegation, however, continues to work to protect the counties' share in future years. The Supplemental Appropriations Act only covers Oct. 1, 2009, to Sept. 30. The congressmen want a permanent solution, however.
Federal money grab
While Sens. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and John Ensign (R-Nev.) and Heller tried to include — on numerous occasions — language on several bills or amendments to restore the money, the initial money grab probably should have never occurred because of an oversight.
H.R. (House Resolution) 2996 was tacked on to a Department of the Interior appropriations bill in late 2009 to have all money derived from sales, bonuses, rentals and royalties under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 revert to the federal government as originally provided in the Geothermal Act of 1970.
That left the counties in the cold, looking from the outside because the federal government successfully succeeded in snatching money.
At the time of the passage last fall, Tim Josi, president of the National Association of Counties Western Interstate Region, stated, “The recent passage of the FY2010 Interior Appropriations Bill effectively redirected the county geothermal revenue sharing funding back to the United States treasury.”
Churchill County officials, along with their counterparts in other Western counties and states, shifted into panic mode once they discovered what the new bill would mean to their budgets. Comptroller Alan Kalt said Churchill County could lose $25,000 to $40,000 per month based on the energy produced or as high as $100,000 for the quarter.
According to Reid's Washington office, the bill will be implemented once legislative procedures are completed.
“Nevada counties that develop geothermal energy will see their revenues restored, rural Nevadans will continue to have access to affordable home financing and funding for an important conservation program will be provided,” Reid said in a statement after the House of Representatives' vote.
Ensign also weighed on the passage, which he and Reid expected to be included in a supplemental spending bill months ago.
“The passing of this legislation was crucial,” Ensign added. “Ensuring that our counties receive their share of geothermal royalties was very important to me and will go a long way toward helping many communities that have been struggling with Nevada's very difficult economic situation.
“This legislation will inject hundreds of thousands of dollars back into towns that should have never been without this money in the first place.”
Frustrating delays
Waiting for the House to pass the Supplemental Appropriations Act frustrated local governments, especially counties that rely on geothermal royalties and rent money to supplement their budgets.
“If the bill had not passed, we would have slowed down the funding of capital improvement projects like the new juvenile probation building and Parks and Recreation, and the repairing of equipment in the road department,” Kalt pointed out.
Before the House took action last week, County Manager Brad Goetsch said he felt someone was trying to prevent the vote from taking place.
Originally, the bill passed the Senate and then reverted back to the House for reconciliation.
“They can push through healthcare in record time, why are we sitting on this,” Commissioner Norm Frey said six days before the bill's passage.
Heller also felt Frey's frustration days before the bill's passage.
“I understand and share the frustration of the residents of Churchill County,” he stated in response to an e-mail sent by the Lahontan Valley News. “The legislative process is often slow and difficult. However, I continue to work with Congressman (Mike) Thompson from California and Nevada's senators to reinstate the revenue share for geothermal royalties. I remain cautiously optimistic that this issue can be resolved this year.”
The situation was becoming annoying to Jeff Fontaine, executive director of the Nevada Association of Counties, which is composed of county government officials and represents all 17 Nevada counties.
Four days before passage, NACO had approved sending a letter to the 312 geothermal-producing counties to organize and align them to contact their congressional delegations to approve the bill.
To add more insult to the process, Churchill County received a letter in May from the U.S. Department of Interior's Minerals Management Services demanding remittance of an overpayment of $182,054.
According to the letter, “The Fiscal Year 2010 Interior appropriations Act repealed the authority of MMS to issue the payments. Therefore the payments were not authorized and currently are debts owed to the Untied States.”
Kalt said the county is in the process of negotiating the repayment, which will come out of the budget, with the Department of the Interior.
While some action has successfully progressed throughout the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, Goetsch and Fontaine said the next hurdle will be against the State of Nevada for giving excessive tax breaks to geothermal companies wanting to build in the Silver State.
The state's money grab
The State of Nevada has taken geothermal money away from the counties and continues to do so. Later this week we find out how local officials respond to this.
