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TESTIMONY OF SHELLEY WADSWORTH 

 EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TASK FORCE 

 LINCOLN COUNTY, NEVADA 

 ON S.854 

 BEFORE 

 SUBCOMMITTEE ON PUBLIC LANDS, NATIONAL PARKS, AND FORESTS 

 SENATE ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMITTEE 

 JUNE 30, 1987 



Mt. Chairman, Members of the Committee, Ladies and 

 Gentlemen-my name is Shelley Wadsworth. I am the Executive . 

 Secretary to Lincoln County's Economic Development Task 

 Force . 



It is an honor to be here in the Nation's Capital to testify 

 on behalf of the Aerojet Nevada Land Exchange. 



I Eua a Nevadan and have been so for 30 years. I have grown 

 up, lived and worked in Lincoln Covmty. I'm biased I know, 

 but we have the best place in the covmtry to live and raise 

 our children. We have clean air, water and a beautiful 

 country side-the only thing we lack is jobs. 



Aerojet Nevada's Land Exchange alone would increase our land 

 tax base 1/2 again. In our county, which in size is larger 

 than nine states, we only have 1.2% of the land as a tax 

 base. The rest is Federal or State owned. The minimal tax 

 base poses serious budget problems. If you read the 

 Washington Post this morning, you may have seen an article 

 regarding the crunch many local governments face because of 

 cutbacks on revenue sharing. 



It is the history of State and Federal Government the last 

 few years to pass laws, rules and regulations which increase 

 demands on local government, while the Federal Government at 

 the scime time, cuts revenue sharing, reducing payment in 

 lieu of taxes, etc. 



The Federal Government in making these demands, greatly 

 burdens local governments, in some instances forcing local 

 government near bankruptcy, such as our county is. 



Laws, regulations and especially Court prouncements have 

 added 50% to the costs of staffing local jails. The courts 

 can say "Because you lack 5 square feet to give this poor 

 unfortunate humane conditions, we'll soak you $1 Million 

 dollars 1" But never a word is said about where to get the 

 money to add the space to a jail-house built over 50 years 

 ago! 



The Health Department of the United States mandates 

 procedures for cleaning up the environment or enforcing 



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