Board allows schools to get extra funds from endowment

BOISE – Idaho’s Land Board voted Tuesday to allow the state’s public schools to get an extra $4.6 million from the state endowment next year – but first, the board criticized legislative budget writers for trying to make that move without the board’s blessing.

“We shouldn’t be placed in a position of having to figure out how to save the public school budget after the fact,” said state Superintendent of Schools Marilyn Howard.

“We have the last say,” said Gov. Dirk Kempthorne.

State endowment officials said the state can afford the change because it’s expecting an additional $5 million in revenue next year from timber harvesting on state lands. Based on that, the state endowment board OK’d the change in an emergency meeting early Tuesday morning.

At the Land Board meeting, Howard voted against the change, which gives the schools a 5 percent payout from state endowment earnings next year instead of the 4 percent the Land Board earlier had set, but hers was the only “no” vote.

However, the entire board, which includes the state’s top elected officials, made it very clear that it was upset by the Legislature’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee setting budgets based on the higher figure without first consulting the Land Board.

Said Howard, “This to me is going a dangerous step forward by giving a signal that, in a sense, it’s OK to balance the budget with money that’s intended to be a consistent stream over time for the schools of this state.”