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Relating to procedures for
the management, sale, or lease of certain state-owned real property and the
management or collection of related funds, including disputed oil and gas
royalties owed to the state.
No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.
HB 2104 amends multiple
sections of the Natural Resources Code (NRC). The chapters affected by this
legislation are Chapter 31 for the General Land Office; Chapter 32 for the
School Land Board; Chapter 33 for the management of Coastal Public Land;
Chapter 51 for land, timber, and surface resources; and Chapter 52 for oil and
gas. Across these five chapters, this legislation makes
procedural changes for managing, selling, or leasing state property.
Additionally this bill addresses disputes arising from oil and gas royalties.
HB 2104 does not make
any significant changes to current law. The author’s statement of intent says
that this legislation makes clarifications and technical corrections. We concur
with this assessment.
It is of note that this
bill would remove the requirement for the commissioner of the General Land
Office (GLO) to publicize news of an approved coastal boundary survey (CBS) in
a local newspaper. However, this information is usually not relevant to the
public at large, and the commissioner by law must already notify by other means
the people a CBS does concern. Moreover, if the public is interested in
obtaining information on a CBS, then they may obtain it from the GLO’s Web site.
Considering these factors, this provision of the bill would result in no loss
of government transparency.
This is a
clarification and cleanup bill which neither infringes nor affirms our liberty
principles. We stand neutral on HB 2104.