Two leaders of the Utah Legislature, Senate President Michael G. Waddoups and House Speaker David Clark, recently suggested the state take over management responsibilities in education, transportation and Medicaid. A better idea would be to begin with the federal lands that now represent 64 percent of the total land in Utah.

The largest area of Utah public land, 22.8 million acres, is managed by the Bureau of Land Management in the Interior Department. Another 8.1 million acres is in the national forest system managed by the U.S. Forest Service in the Agriculture Department. On these lands, the most important decisions concern matters such as the number of cows that will be allowed to graze, the levels of timber harvesting, the leasing of land for oil and gas drilling, the prevention and fighting of forest fires and the areas available to off-road recreational vehicles.

Except in Utah and other parts of the American West, where the federal government still holds about half the total land area, such matters are the responsibility of private land owners and of state and local governments. It is time to end this antiquated system which has failed the test of time. Despite the possession of hundreds of millions of acres of land, and vast oil and gas, coal and other valuable mineral resources, the federal lands proved to be a money-losing proposition.

In 2008, the Forest Service alone spent about $2 billion in fighting fires in Utah, California, Colorado and other Western states. On the federal lands used mainly for livestock grazing, the total revenues from grazing fees are less than $25 million per year, while federal costs easily exceed $150 million per year. The exact amounts are difficult to calculate, but overall the federal government (i.e. national taxpayers) spends more than $4 billion per year to cover the difference between ordinary public land revenues and the costs of land management.

Some federal lands such as national parks do, of course, hold priceless national assets that are properly a federal responsibility. Even if the ordinary lands were transferred out of federal ownership, the nationally important lands such as Zion, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands and Arches national parks would be retained by the federal government.

During the "Sagebrush Rebellion" three decades ago, Western leadership ostensibly sought the transfer of the ordinary public lands to the states. But when faced with the actual possibility of taking possession, they declined because calculations revealed it might cost them more than they would gain. Today, however, assuming that Utah were freed of federal red tape to manage the lands more efficiently, and taking account of much higher current oil and gas prices, it might well be a wash.

By acquiring the ordinary BLM and national forest lands, Utah would take greater control over its own destiny. There is a real sense in which federal ownership of the larger part of Utah lands has left the state in a dependent and even in some ways colonial relationship with the national government.

Admittedly, change would be difficult, however, unless state leaders in Utah were to take the initiative. The status quo is good for Utah political representatives in Washington because Utah citizens must now rely on them to deal with the federal government. Those specific Utah residents who now make the greatest use of the public lands in the state also worry that any changes might somehow curb their longstanding prerogatives.

If the State of Utah wants to demonstrate its superior governance capacities, the ordinary public lands are the best place to start. Among the current federal roles in Utah, none is more inherently state and local in character than the management of the ordinary public lands, now covering a large part of the state. Given the current fiscal straits of the federal government, and the strong public demands for "change" in Washington, what are we waiting for?

Robert Nelson is a professor at the School of Public Policy of the University of Maryland and an affiliated senior scholar with the Mercatus Center. From 1975 to 1993, he was a senior economist in the Office of the Secretary of the Interior.