BOISE — Thanks to both record investment returns and plentiful earnings from state timber lands, Idaho’s top elected officials voted unanimously Tuesday to back a nearly 14% increase in endowment distributions next year to a new high of more than $100 million.

The $100.3 million distribution includes $61.5 million for the state’s K-12 public schools in fiscal year 2023, up 12.3% from this year’s $54.8 million endowment distribution to schools, which are the state endowment’s single largest beneficiary. Others include state universities, veterans homes, prisons, and mental hospitals.

Idaho state Superintendent of Public Instruction Sherri Ybarra called the newly set distribution “great news for Idaho’s public schools.”

“Serving on the Land Board has given me a great appreciation for the careful land management and investment that ensure our funding will be consistent and grow,” Ybarra said in a statement to the Idaho Press.

Idaho’s state Land Board, which is chaired by Gov. Brad Little and also includes Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, Secretary of State Lawerence Denney, and state Controller Brandon Woolf, also voted to increase the earnings reserve level for the public schools to seven years’ worth of distributions, bringing it up to match the levels already set for the other portions of the state endowment; and to transfer $486.4 million in excess earnings from the reserves to the state’s permanent endowment fund.

“Those will help enhance and grow distributions going forward,” Chris Anton, manager of investments for the Endowment Fund Investment Board, told the Land Board, saying Idaho’s in an “enviable position” for its state endowment.

In the fiscal year that ended June 30, Idaho’s state endowment fund earned a record 29.7% in investment earnings; after adjusting for 2.3% inflation, that’s a “real return” of 27.4%, Anton said. Investment gains on the fund, which started the fiscal year at $2.4 billion, came to more than $700 million for the year.

In addition, the Idaho Department of Lands generated $59.5 million in revenue from state endowment lands during the fiscal year, and as of June 30, had pre-sold $149.7 million in timber from those lands. For the year, 99% of the net income from state endowment lands came from logging, according to state Lands Director Dustin Miller.

“We had a very strong year, and we had very strong earnings,” Anton said. “Unless the market drops off considerably, you’ll also see strong distributions in the next two years” that follow, fiscal years 2024 and 2025.

The board had just participated in a lengthy discussion of a costly and worsening fire season. Little told Anton, “You know, compared to some of these other people, you’ve got a lot of good news.”

The endowment was created at statehood through a land grant from Congress; the state Land Board is charged by the Idaho Constitution with managing the endowment for the maximum long-term financial returns to the beneficiaries.

In 1968, Idaho voters approved a constitutional amendment to create the Endowment Fund Investment Board to manage the permanent fund created by earnings from or sales of state endowment lands; at that time, the fund totaled $77 million. In 1998, Idaho voters approved another constitutional amendment allowing the endowment fund to be invested in stocks, rather than just in fixed-income investments. That change, implemented in 2000, initially caused the fund to shrink substantially, but since then its total has soared.

As of July 1, the state’s permanent endowment fund totaled $3.108 billion. As of Monday, it already had earned another 2.1% in investment earnings since then, Anton said, bringing it up to $3.173 billion.