SITLA Eyes $1B Endowment Account

None by KCPW

Federal Land Swap Part of Getting to that Milestone

(KCPW News) Utah's School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration - SITLA - has big money goals to fund education with its endowment account. Kevin Carter, SITLA director, wants to hit the $1 billion mark:

"When we were created in 1994, that account stood at about $50-60 million. Since that time we've been pretty aggressive in our management and now the combined funds are about $800 million, and our goal is to get them to a billion dollars by 2010."

Originally granted to the state upon statehood in 1896, SITLA today holds in trust three-point-five million acres of surface lands and another one million acres in minerals lands for the benefit of Utah's public schools. The Trustlands Administration sells off parcels or leases mineral rights for development. That money is placed in a permanent endowment, the interest on which is passed along to schools for discretionary spending.

A deal recently approved in the U.S. House will allow SITLA to swap 45,000 acres near the Colorado River for 40,000 acres in the Uintah Basin - a deal which Carter expects to be a money maker:

"If we're fortunate in finding gas on the properties that we're acquiring, I think we're looking at upper-tens to low hundreds-of-millions of dollars."

The Senate still must approve the Utah Recreational Land Exchange Act of 2006. Carter expects a positive Senate vote before the end of the year.

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