HB-1322 require that the Federal government sell off all public lands in Colorado

[CSPSgt]

I found a link to this on Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep society. This could make public hunting a little difficult.

Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg has authored HB-1322, which would require that the Federal government sell off all public lands in Colorado which are suitable for agriculture (including livestock grazing) by 2014. Do you feel like Rep. Sonnenberg is representing your interests as a sportsman?

The bill requires the United States to sell agricultural public lands
on or before December 31, 2014and provides that any agricultural public
lands that the United States does not sell as of that date will no longer be
exempt from property tax. The bill further requires the United States to
pay the state 5% of the net proceeds of the sales of any agricultural public lands and specifies that these revenues be deposited into an internal
improvements fund, a portion of which is dedicated to the state education
fund.

http://www.leg.state.co.us/clics/cl...5F9F5EB8725798800594C9B?Open&file=1322_01.pdf

 

[CSPSgt]

From the President of the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Society.

"Several wildlife/conservation organizations were in attendance at the capitol yesterday to make sure our legislators and Governor heard that the citizens of Colorado were not in favor of such a Bill. There was unanimous agreement from everyone in the room, including the Representatives/Senators, that the Bill was a bad idea and would not move forward. There was also spirited discussion around Sonnenberg's HB 1317 which is his recommendation for how the new Wildlife Commission should look. Everyone in the room seemed to agree that they were not in support of HB 1317 except one individual who coincidentally has very strong ties to Sonnenberg. It was interesting to hear this person suggest that the vast majority of conservation/wildlife organizations and the 1,000's of individual comments, which were of a similar opinion, were somehow not truly representative of what the "sportsmen" want. I guess sportsmen choose to only speak to this individual and not voice their opinion as everyone else did?"

We dodged this one.