Idaho’s state endowment is expecting to make at least $30 million later this month from an auction of state-owned cabin sites on Priest Lake - an estimate state officials call "conservative" - and another $13 million from another auction at Payette Lake in December. Currently, proceeds from sales of state endowment land go into a Land Bank Fund for up to five years, where they can be used for other land acquisitions; after that time, they transfer to the permanent endowment.

A subcommittee of the Land Board looking at the issue reported today that the Land Bank currently has a $12.5 million balance, and while the Department of Lands is looking at possible purchases of timber land and road right-of-way, none of those purchases are likely to occur within the next four months. Funds in the Land Bank are invested by the state treasurer as part of the state’s idle pool, where they earn about 0.4 percent interest annually. But the permanent endowment fund last year made 18 percent in investment earnings.

“We certainly know that there will be some money coming into the Land Bank in amounts that really should be sent into the permanent funds,” said Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa, who chairs the subcommittee. So the Land Board voted unanimously today to transfer the current $12.5 million balance from the Land Bank Fund to the permanent endowment. The board also voted to consider consultants’ analyses at its December meeting on how to handle future balances in the Land Bank fund and when to make transfers, including possibly limiting the land bank fund to $10 million, with all proceeds above that going directly to the permanent endowment fund.