The people's voice., 1959-02-20

state agricultural and grazing leases
must be so advertised in "the officia
county newspaper of each county
wherein there are state lands -
All state leases expire on February
% of their 10th year. Such leases
under HB 425, would have to be ad,
vertised for 'two successive weeks
during the December preceding lease
expiration.
Sub. House Bill 426, by House Com
mittee on State Lands, Forest and
Parks; ithe original also introduced
by Bardanouve) would revise the
animal unit month formula method
of figuring state land rentals so that
the public schools income and inter-
est fund would receive rs cents per
AUM instead of the present 25 cents.
(Under the present law, grazing rent
ais bring in approximately one mil
lion dollars revenue per biennium.)
Both bills provoked considerable,
and at times, heated debate, with
House stockmen finding themselves
very much in the minority when votes
were taken on final approval of each
measure. HB 425 passed 54-3O, and
Sub. H8 426, 65-19.
NO, NO, A THOUSAND TIMES, NO!
Stockmen, doubling as House mem
bers, for the most part, really took
the bait on this business of letting
the public in on leases about to ex-
pire, when HB 425 was debated Sat-
urday. They castigated it as ''harass-
ment', 'newspaperman's relief bill'',
step which when competitive bidding
for leases occurred would bring about
bidding for trouble" among neigh
bors.
Supporters of the bill, including
Stockman Bardanouve, pointed out
these lands are ''trust lands" for the
children and that the Constitution
requires the securing of ''true market
value" from them; that all other
public agencies advertise lands to en-
courage competitive bidding, that
present bidding constitutes nothing
but "backroom secret auctions; that
advertising is the backbone of bust
ness today and Montana's state lands
are big business.
Stockman minority Leader) Ger
ard, feeling well placed needle by
lawyer Daniels, found his neck red
dening, his disposition going to pot.
Gerard, after an eloquent, if doleful
prophecy as to the shambles such ad-
vertising would make of the stock
growing business, asserted HB 425
was little more than a newspaper
mans relief act'', and then moved
that the bills enacting clause be
stricken. To this Daniels most vigor-
ously objected and recalled to the
"Gentleman from Madison" the lat
ter's frequent and dire forecasts that
the budget wouldn't be balanced un-
less additional revenue were forth
coming. Daniels said HB 425 was "an
honest attempt to- secure more reve-
nues" from state-owned properties |
which yielded far less than compar-
able private and federal grazing lands. |
He invited Gerard's cooperation.
Rep. Bardanouve led the success |
full fight for passage, pointing out
that montana lands should be run
in a businesslike manner :" that |
advertising is the basis of American
business today &. . newspapers, radio,
television - and that by advertis-
ing and competitive bidding there
will be a much better chance of OBJ
tanning ''true market value" on state
school lands. These lands, he con-
weren't put here for the
benefit of cattlemen-of which | am
one-but for the benefit of the chill
dren of Montana :" It's time, he
said. 1--WE get out of the horse and
buggy period" in the handling of up
wards of five million acres of school
trust lands.
Citing an example of how unrealis-
tic state lease rentals are, the Blaine
county legislator pointed out that he
has one tract of such land that costs
him $75 year, that an adjacent tract
of non-state land he leases, and which
L l. L L. n.4- L.