State lawmakers want to put your money behind their promises "to do whatever it takes" to protect the future of Hill Air Force Base and its workers.
And they may also be willing to wield one of government's most controversial powers to further their cause - condemnation.House Bill 227 would set aside $10 million to buy easements on 800 acres surrounding the base's runway. The easements would stop housing development near the runway, a problem that threatened the base's chances of surviving closure in 1993 hearings.
But if landowners won't sell for fair market value, the state could condemn their property for a fair price, the bill proposes.
"There are other alternatives before that happens . . . land trades would be one. Condemnation would just be a last resort," said Sen. Lane Beattie, R-Bountiful, Senate majority leader and one of the bill's sponsors.
The bill has the support of more than enough lawmakers to pass and will be debated on House and Senate floors sometime next week.
It "represents a very clear and united effort from both political parties to keep the base and protect its workers," said Marty Stephens, R-Farr West, House majority leader. "This is a statewide issue that deserves our full support."
Lawmakers tried a similar strategy in 1976 when they appropriated $1 million to buy easements off the base runway's south end. They unsuccessfully proposed spending $4 million.
"That just took care of part of the problem," said Steve Rush, head of the encroachment committee for Hill/DDO '95, a private group working to save the base. "Had they spent the whole $4 million, we wouldn't need this money today."
Rush said the $10 million today would buy more easements for land on the south and north ends of the runway and in an area just west of the strip.
Once secured, the easements would bolster the base's chances of surviving closure in 1995 hearings in Washington, D.C., he said.
Officials during 1993 hearings said Hill ranked in the "yellow" category of noise encroachment, a bad omen. If purchased, the easements would give Hill a "green" ranking, the best, Rush said.
Mike Pavich, a retired major general who is now leading the fight to save Hill, agrees the easements are needed. "We don't want the people of Utah to come to us later and ask why we didn't do everything possible to keep our bases," he said.