Opinion ID: 1253294
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 15

Heading: statements against the proposed amendments

Text: Section 4, Article IX 1. Changing the name of the Public School Fund to the Public School Permanent Endowment Fund is unnecessary. People who deal with the public school endowment already know what the name refers to. 2. Requiring that the Public School Permanent Endowment Fund contain proceeds from the sale of lands of the public school endowment is unnecessary because those proceeds already have to be deposited into the permanent fund of the public school endowment. 3. Creating a Land Bank Fund and eliminating the requirement for land exchanges will turn the state into a land broker. The state should not be in the business of buying and selling land. The requirement for land exchanges helps limit how much the state deals in lands. 4. The Land Bank Fund will divert investment money from the Public School Permanent Endowment Fund, possibly resulting in lower revenues. Therefore, the Land Bank Fund will decrease the amount of growth in the financial assets of the public school endowment and will decrease revenues if this money is kept in an account where, although invested, it may not be invested in the best earning instruments. 5. Although the state constitution limits land sales to no more than 100 sections (64,000 acres) of state land per year, these amendments will promote land sales, thereby depleting the physical assets of the endowments and jeopardizing their financial health and that of the endowment beneficiaries.