SALT LAKE CITY — Former Utah legislator David Ure was announced Wednesday as the next director of Utah's School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, which oversees a permanent fund and land set aside for the benefit of schools in the state.
Ure was chosen by Gov. Gary Herbert to replace outgoing director Kevin Carter, who has held the position since 2003 and will retire in January.
SITLA administers roughly 4.5 million acres of mineral estate and 3.5 million acres in other areas that each year generate between $100 million and $150 million in revenue. Most of the money is put into a permanent fund, now $2 billion strong, and another portion is distributed to schools annually.
Ure served in the Utah House of Representatives from 1994 to 2006 and has been a board member and chairman of SITLA. He was also named Summit County's rancher of the year in 1996.
"It's my goal before I leave that we put another billion dollars into this organization," Ure said at a news conference Wednesday. "That's what I think everybody would like to see happen."
During Carter's tenure, SITLA earned more than $1.3 billion for the permanent school fund. Annual interest and dividends from the fund, which are distributed directly to school community councils, have grown from $8 million in 2003 to $45.8 million this school year, a 17 percent increase from last year and the largest payout in the program's 15-year history.
— Morgan Jacobsen