Idaho’s state Land Board had been scheduled for a special meeting this afternoon, but now it’s been canceled. The reason: Attorney General Lawrence Wasden raised concerns about inadequate notice of the meeting; it likely will be rescheduled soon. There were only two items on the agenda: Extending all state-owned lake cabin site leases now scheduled to expire on Dec. 31 for one more year at current rates, allowing time for re-appraisals of land values; and an executive session on potential litigation related to cabin sites.

Last month, the Land Board unexpectedly rejected two major land exchanges intended to swap cabin sites at Priest and Payette lakes for commercial property in southern Idaho, potentially doubling the proceeds to the state endowment. The state’s been working to get itself out of the business of renting lakefront lots on which the renters build their own cabins; the nearly century-old practice has led to years of lawsuits and protests over what constitutes fair rent in that situation.

But the two big swaps were questioned by a handful of state lawmakers and local officials, who noted among their concerns that their counties would lose property taxes on the commercial land when it switched to state ownership, and ideological opposition to the idea of the state owning commercial property, on grounds that the state shouldn’t compete with private business.

However, the state endowment, which operates as a trust, long has owned commercial timber and grazing lands on which it’s issued leases, and in recent years has increasingly expanded into other types of property investments, including office and commercial buildings; its constitutional mandate is to bring in the maximum long-term financial return for the trust’s beneficiaries. The state still could bring back up the land exchanges, but at this point, the prospects are unclear.