Selling surplus property

The White House has identified 12,218 federal properties the federal government no longer needs, USA Today reported Tuesday. But the administration says Congress must smooth the way if Washington is to reach the $15 billion President Obama hopes to save in three years by selling such unneeded assets.

That's why the president will send legislation to Congress to create an independent commission -- modeled after the military's Base Realignment and Closure Commission, established in 1988 -- to identify civilian federal properties that could be closed, sold or demolished.

The tally of such federal properties in Nevada varies from 116 to 134, depending on the document consulted. For the most part, though, the Nevada list seems to be made up of individual structures, rather than vast swathes of real estate. In Southern Nevada, the targets include two houses at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and several structures at the Amargosa Pupfish Research Station, among others.

Jeff Zients, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, told the newspaper that bureaucratic, financial and political hurdles often create a "culture of inertia" that blocks the transfer of such properties onto local tax rolls.

The 20 different laws that govern the sale of federal property need to be streamlined, Mr. Zients said. One 1988 law, for example, requires agencies to consider converting unused properties into homeless shelters. And there can also be financial roadblocks. "Ironically, federal agencies can't afford to get rid of property because they can't afford the short-term costs -- things like moving expenses or transaction costs," he said.

A house here and a shed there? The federal government controls 87 percent of the surface area of Nevada alone. Military bases are one thing -- and we're proud to have them -- but federal holdings in the West are larger than entire states. Any federally controlled lands that can be opened to homesteading or sold off to taxpaying private owners would benefit local economies in the long run.

Some 12,000 properties are a good start in addressing the country's trillions of dollars in debt -- but only a start.