>Sure. But if greed is a motive they can make more money by letting someone extract the minerals and pay taxes.
>
>What makes you think that the aren't doing this? The problem here is that when the lands are confiscated by the big bloated federal government, the federal government is the one that gets the tax revenue. Don't you think that if the land with the mineral rights is in a specific state that the state should get the revenue?


http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/11/us/alabama-house-speaker-convicted/index.html
He was convicted by the feds.

The leaders of both houses in NY are heading for Federal prison. The democratic governor refused to investigate them. Without the feds, they'd still be stealing.

There are more than 200 people making over $100K at the Port Authority of NY.
Bill Baroni, a Hamilton boy, was one of them till the Feds indicted him.
Bill Baroni was making over $200K/yr and the only thing he knows about bridges is what he heard from his dentist.

There's a special section in the Federal Prison in Pa for mayors from New Jersey.


Corruption at the state, county and town level in the US is out of control and getting worse.
Christie doesn't even bother to hide it anymore.

US schools, among the worst in the world, are managed by states and local school boards.


The myth that the states are more efficient than the feds has long since been exploded but it sounds nice, so we perpetuate it.