S. 684 would direct the Secretary of Agriculture to convey, without consideration, certain lands in Utah to the town of Alta. Based on information from the Forest Service, CBO estimates that enacting the legislation would have no significant impact on the federal budget. CBO expects that enacting the legislation would increase direct spending; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. We estimate, however, that such effects would be negligible. Enacting the legislation would not affect revenues.
Under current law, the Forest Service receives payments totaling less than $20,000 per year for easements on the affected lands. Under S. 684, those lands would be conveyed to Alta, Utah. Thus, CBO estimates that enacting the legislation would reduce offsetting receipts (a credit against direct spending) by less than $200,000 over the 2012-2022 period. Because the act would require the town to pay the administrative costs associated with the land conveyance, CBO estimates that implementing S. 684 would not have a significant impact on spending subject to appropriation.
S. 684 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.
On July 27, 2011, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for S. 684, a bill to provide for the conveyance of certain parcels of land to the town of Alta, Utah, as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on July 14, 2011. The two versions of the legislation are similar, and the CBO cost estimates are the same.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Jeff LaFave. The estimate was approved by Theresa Gullo, Deputy Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.