Bill would let State Parks retain grazing fees for maintenance account; amendment removes outdated fee formula

Assembly Bill 543, presented as a budget implementation bill, would revise how the State handles grazing fees on certain state lands and allow the Division of State Parks to deposit grazing revenue into a nonreversionary parks maintenance account.

"The intent is just to be able to put that money into that account, which is a nonreversionary account," said Bob Margell (administrator for Division of State Parks), explaining that small grazing fees often do not yield meaningful funding for resource projects unless revenues can accumulate.

Key change: presenters said an amendment largely replaces the bill’s original text and moves the fee language into NRS chapter 407 (State Parks) rather than chapter 322 (State Lands), and that the amended language mirrors fee methodology used by the Department of Wildlife (chapter 504) to create consistent grazing rules across agencies. Charlie Donahue, administrator for the Division of State Lands, said the older statutory fee formula relies on data (a beef price index) the National Agricultural Statistics Service no longer provides and is “no longer sustainable.”

Fiscal and procedural points: the bill is associated with Decision Unit E350 and would deposit grazing fee revenue into the nonreversionary maintenance account for State Parks (BA44605). Committee members asked how minimum baselines would be set once the statutory formula is struck and what public transparency and oversight would apply. Donahue and Margell said grazing leases remain a competitive public solicitation; the administrator would be able to reject bids not in line with historical or reasonable values.

Members acknowledged the change could improve park resource projects by letting small fees accumulate, but asked for data transparency. "All of this is public information," Donahue said, noting agencies advertise solicitations and historic lease data are available for public review.

Outcome: The committee closed the fiscal hearing on AB543 with questions outstanding about oversight and the replacement fee methodology; no committee vote was taken at this hearing.