The Big Job We Know Little About

Confessions are good for the soul, or so I've heard, so I'll admit that in the past I have usually voted for the commissioner of state lands more in a partisan way than in an educated way. This voting method would be grounds for embarrassment if I believed I was the only one who has generally forgotten about this state job until faced with it at the polls. So, I'll plead, "Oops!" as Texas Gov. Rick Perry so eloquently phrased his unpreparedness.

This year I am reforming my ways, chiefly because Mark Robertson is running for the land commissioner position. Asked what the incumbent had done to cause him to enter the race, Robertson refreshingly replied, "I'm not going to say one bad thing about my opponent. He has done some good things. This race is not about us as individuals. It is about two people with different visions of what the office should do for the people of the state."

So what is this job and what does it mean to Arkansawyers? For one thing, it is one of only seven popularly elected constitutional positions in state government. The rather mundane side of the work, but a major responsibility of the commissioner, requires attention to privately held lands that are delinquent on payment of state real estate taxes. If after two years of forfeiting opportunities to pay the taxes to redeem their property, owners could see it put up for auction at a public sale in the county where it is located. This keeps tax income continuing to be generated to serve counties' essential needs. For example, since 2003, more than $123 million has been collected for public schools.

This tax watch is important, but that part of the job seems more clerical than powerful. In addition, the office of the commissioner of state lands maintains on file all the deeds of land owned by the state or state agencies and institutions, except the highway department. Most importantly, except for lands held by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, the commissioner of state lands is in charge of leasing the minerals on or under state-owned lands, even including the muddy bottoms of the navigable state waterways. Sand and gravel permits, brine leases and timber production sales also are in the commissioner's jurisdiction, so now we're talking business, and my guess is this may be why the office attracts candidates.

According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture, an act passed in 1939 "made it state policy to 'protect the lands owned by the State' and 'to provide for their classification and best use in the interests of the future general welfare and agricultural well being of the State,' especially with an eye to creating and preserving forests and parks as well as promoting agricultural settlement upon family-sized tracts of land." Some degree of historic preservation also falls to the commissioner as part of caring for the state.

Clearly there is more to the value of land than the money its raw resources can produce, but typically our culture's behavior of "the dollar today, to heck with tomorrow" will leave us drained of an inventory of our precious basic needs -- fertile soil and clean water. Someone mindful of the functioning value of land and water to long term economic security is needed in this state job. Mark Robertson is by profession a landscape architect and horticulturist, and a volunteer advocate of green infrastructure, sustainability in land use and green building techniques, as well as a promoter of "green jobs" and the "green economy." He has 35 years of land-use planning and design experience, has dealt with most of the state agencies, and has worked across all of Arkansas, so he knows its land value well.

Robertson sees the role of the land commissioner as more than that of a land auctioneer or as a leasing agent. "Those resources belong to the citizens of Arkansas -- we need to ensure that we're getting the full benefit of the resources, that we're protecting our resources for generations, and that the benefits are there for the average Arkansan, not just for a select few."

Robertson will be at a Public Meet and Greet Ice Cream Social at Fayetteville's Democratic Headquarters, 2025 N. Green Acres Road on Sunday, July 27, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.. It is vital to have someone with a land-use value philosophy to oversee our public properties. Go get acquainted with him if, like me, you need to do your citizen homework.

FRAN ALEXANDER IS A FAYETTEVILLE RESIDENT WITH A LONGSTANDING INTEREST IN THE ENVIRONMENT AND AN OPINION ON ALMOST ANYTHING ELSE.

Commentary on 07/13/2014

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