Get Washington Off Our Backs Should the people of Utah be allowed al-lowed to receive a severance tax for timber harvested on Utah's national forest lands like the people of Arkansas are allowed to receive from timber harvested on Arkansas' national forest lands? Is President Clinton being hypocritical hyp-ocritical in trying to prevent Utah from benefiting from the natural resources re-sources on Utah's federal lands while at the same time knowing, from his experiences as Attorney General and Governor of Arkansas, that Arkansas receives significant tax revenues from the natural resources re-sources on Arkansas' federal lands? The people of Arkansas are allowed al-lowed to receive severance taxes for all natural products of the soil or water of Arkansas, two-thirds of which are placed in the Severance Tax Fund of the State of Arkansas to be dedicated to the common , schools of Arkansas. The remaining remain-ing one-third of the severance taxes goes to the county where the resource re-source originates, half of which goes to the county roads and half to the county schools. Arkansas passed Act 118 on February 14, 1923. In 1946, the U.S. Supreme Court found that the Arkansas Legislature had the constitutional consti-tutional right to collect the severance sever-ance tax on national forests. Chief Justice Stone went even further. He wrote, that "the legislative authority au-thority of the state extended over the federally owned lands within the state, to the same extent as over similar property held by private owners." Wilson vs. Cook, 327 U.S. 474, 487. The Court used Utah Power and Light vs. U.S. as a precedent in determining de-termining that Arkansas, like Utah, had legislative authority over federal lands within the state. Now Clinton is denying Utah the legislative legisla-tive authority over federal lands that the United States Supreme Court said we had in 1917. Would President William Jefferson Clinton please explain to the people of Utah how we lost what we once had? If the Kaiparowits Plateau was in Arkansas, Arkansas would receive re-ceive a severance tax on every ton of coal produced; on federal land as well as on state or privately owned land. Yet President William Jefferson Clinton is trying to limit us to just the school trust lands. He is, in effect, stealing from the state and county governments of Utah as well as from our school children. He is also stealing Utah jobs. Why don't we either change our state name to Arkansas II, pass a severance tax law like Arkansas', or adopt a state constitutional amendment amend-ment for severance taxes on natural resources like Louisiana's to get Washington off our backs? M.I. Cox Riverton