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Idaho Land Board approves $63 million to
endowment trust lands beneficiaries; most goes
to schools |
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August 19, 2015 |
Idaho’s public school system and a number of
other State institutions will receive increased
payouts from Idaho endowment funds in fiscal
year 2017.
The State Board of Land Commissioners
unanimously approved on Tuesday, August 18, an 11.8 percent
increase in total Fiscal Year 2017 distributions
compared to Fiscal Year 2016, bringing Fiscal
Year 2017 distributions for all endowment
beneficiaries to $63,158,400, most of which
supports Idaho’s public school system.
Record earnings over the last two fiscal years
from the Idaho Department of Lands’ active
management of more than 2.4 million acres of
State endowment trust lands, along with healthy
12.0% returns for the last five fiscal years on
$1.8 billion of invested land revenue managed by
the Endowment Fund Investment Board, contributed
to the increases.
Public schools will see a 12.1 percent increase
over Fiscal Year 2016, or $3,966,000 more in
cash for a total of $36,724,800.
The highest percent change in Fiscal Year 2017
cash distributions is for the endowment fund
that supports Idaho State University, State
Hospital North, State veterans homes, State
Juvenile Corrections Center, and the Idaho
School for the Deaf and Blind. Disbursements to
these institutions will increase by more than 23
percent in Fiscal Year 2017.
Other State institutions receiving more money in
Fiscal Year 2017 include the University of
Idaho, teacher education programs at Lewis-Clark
State College and Idaho State University, and
correctional facilities.
Land Board policy calls for distributions to be
raised only when the increase is expected to be
sustainable in the future, based on expected
returns of the endowment’s land and fund assets.
The Land Board is made up of Idaho’s governor,
secretary of state, attorney general, state
controller and superintendent of public
instruction. It is charged by the Idaho
Constitution with managing Idaho’s endowment
trust lands and funds in a prudent manner to
maximize long-term financial distributions to
the beneficiaries.
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