Chuck Lempesis, attorney for Priest Lake cabin owners, urged strongly against the Land Board's new premium rent proposal. "This will destroy the marketplace, I am telling you," Lempesis declared. "Who in their right mind would buy anything, particularly in the next year, with the word out there" of a possible 50 percent premium rent on future sales, he asked. "And who would sell under those circumstances?" If 50 percent of net proceeds go to the state, he said, once taxes and transaction costs are taken out, "There is nothing, or hardly anything that the seller gets."

Lempesis urged the board to just approve one-year leases for the next year, and keep premium rent as-is. "The people who will suffer the most if you impose today the 50 percent ... will be the beneficiaries of the endowment," he said. "It will drive down the values substantially of the properties. ... If you go to 50 percent of net you're going to take that market down."