New motion: Cabin site rents at 4 percent of value from 2012 on
Secretary of State Ben Ysursa has now moved to set state endowment cabin-site rents at 4 percent of value for 2012 and the following nine years, after a one-year freeze next year. Attorney General Lawrence Wasden seconded the motion. Ysursa said it supersedes the board's action last March to set phased-in rent increases in its new cabin-site leases.
Ysursa said the ultimate goal is dispose of the cabin sites. "But while we do this, I certainly don't believe we're going to be able to ... snap our fingers and get out of this," he said. "So there are going to be cottage site leases , they are going to be around for a while." Ysursa said the whole issue has been handled with "good faith." He said, "This I believe in my heart of hearts, that this is a good rate for No. 1 the endowment. Secondly, I think it gives some stability down the road of what the cottage site users will face in future years. ... The real goal, I can't emphasize enough, is what we passed earlier in the day. Let's get a reasonable good-faith effort to dispose of these properties and enhance the endowment."