Bullfrog County, Nevada facts for kids
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Quick facts for kids Bullfrog County |
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| County of Nevada | |||||
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| Capital city | Carson City (exterritorial) | ||||
| History | |||||
| - | Established | 1987 | |||
| - | Disestablished | 1989 | |||
| Area | |||||
| - | 1987 | 370 km2 (143 sq mi) | |||
| Population | |||||
| - | 1987 | 0 | |||
| Density | 0 /km2 (0 /sq mi) | ||||
| Today part of |  United States |
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Bullfrog County was an uninhabited county in the U.S. state of Nevada created by the Nevada Legislature in 1987. It comprised a 144-square-mile (370 km2) area around Yucca Mountain enclosed by Nye County, from which it was created. Its county seat was located in the state capital of Carson City 270 miles (430 km) away, and its officers were appointed by the governor rather than elected.
Created in response to a planned nuclear waste site in the area, it was meant to discourage the construction of the site via high property taxes and to direct funds from the site that would have otherwise gone to Nye County directly to the state government. Its creation produced various legal issues for the state, and critics suggested that its existence prompted a conflict of interest for the state in the site's placement. Upon a lawsuit by Nye County, its creation was ruled in violation of the state constitution in 1988, and it was dissolved back into Nye County the following year.
Background
The county's establishment was a response to plans by the United States federal government to create a disposal site for radioactive waste in Yucca Mountain. The federal government agreed to provide payment-equal-to taxes (PETT) funding to Nye County during the characterization and construction of the Yucca Mountain repository. This money was intended to go straight to Nye County, bypassing the state government. In response, Nevada Assemblyman Paul May drafted a law declaring the unpopulated area around the proposed nuclear waste site to be a new county, Bullfrog County. Because this new county had no population, any federal payments for placing the nuclear waste site there would go directly to the state treasury. Furthermore, property tax rates in the county were set at , the highest allowable by the state constitution. This tax burden (potentially up to $25 million) was meant to discourage the waste site's creation by making it prohibitively expensive to use the land for a radioactive waste dump. However, it also guaranteed that the waste site would at least be profitable for the state government if it were ever built. The bill was passed at 3:45 am on June 18, 1987—near the end of the year's legislative session—and signed into law by Governor Richard Bryan. The bill stipulated that if the repository was not built in the county, it would be dissolved and reincorporated into Nye County.
Dissolution
The existence of Bullfrog County had the potential to create serious legal problems for the state of Nevada. The Nevada Constitution requires all criminal trials to be tried in the county where the crime occurred, and before a jury of residents of that county. However, since it was not assigned to a judicial district, it had no judiciary or prosecutors. Additionally, if a felony or serious misdemeanor was committed in Bullfrog County, it would have been theoretically impossible to empanel a jury, a (perhaps) perfect crime. For these and other reasons, Nye County sued, claiming the law was unconstitutional. In late October 1987, Nevada Attorney General Brian McKay announced that the state would not defend the law in court, since in his view it was likely unconstitutional.
On February 11, 1988, retired Nevada Supreme Court justice David Zenoff conducted a special hearing and found Bullfrog County's creation to be unconstitutional. Zenoff found that since Bullfrog County had no residents, it did not have a representative government. He also ruled the provision of the law giving Bryan the power to appoint the commissioners and sheriff ran counter to the democratic process. In compliance, the state legislature abolished Bullfrog County in 1989, and the territory was retroceded to Nye County.
