OCR Text |
Show HUNGRY HORSE PREDICTION 47 posed authorizing language, stating the maximum amount of such subsidy to irrigation, which would be borne by the federal government. As soon as feasible, arrangements will be made to show any such subsidy in the annual Budget presentation to the Congress." Subsidy is a word no sponsor of a reclamation project swallows with ease, and the Reclamation Bureau had for years done everything it could to conceal the bitter dose in a more palatable and appealing coating. Here it was served up on an official spoon in all its original unsavoriness Moreover, the next course dished out by a-47 was even more indigestible to the Reclamation Bureau heads and their brothers in the Upper Basin. It said: 59 "In determining financial feasibility of irrigation pro- jects, the Department of the Interior has construed federal reclamation laws to permit the use of interest payments on the construction cost allocated to power or water supply, to show assistance in the retirement of construction costs allocated to irrigation, that are in excess of the ability of the water users to repay. "There has been no general legislation specifically dealing with this policy. "The Bureau of the Budget, in clearance of project reports, has never specifically approved or disapproved the policy of applying the interest component to assist in the retirement of costs allocated to irrigation. "The use of the interest component for this purpose raises several important policy problems: (a) the inter- est component represents an indefinite type of subsidy, (b) the interest component may be used to make a pro- ject appear to be financially feasible which is not eco- nomically sound, and (c) the size of the interest com- |