| Vote Recommendation | Economic Freedom | Property Rights | Personal Responsibility | Limited Government | Individual Liberty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral | Neutral |
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.
SB 903 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 different chapters, this legislation makes procedural changes for
managing, selling, or leasing state property. Additionally this bill addresses
disputes arising from oil and gas royalties.
SB 903 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 website. Considering these factors, this provision of the bill would result in no loss of government transparency.
Ultimately this is a clarification and cleanup bill which neither infringes nor affirms our liberty principles. We stand neutral on SB 903.