53C-1-102 - Purpose. - Utah Statutes

53C-1-102. Purpose.
(1) (a) The purpose of this title is to establish an administration and board to managelands that Congress granted to the state for the support of common schools and other beneficiaryinstitutions, under the Utah Enabling Act.
(b) This grant was expressly accepted in the Utah Constitution, thereby creating acompact between the federal and state governments which imposes upon the state a perpetualtrust obligation to which standard trust principles are applied.
(c) Title to these trust lands is vested in the state as trustee to be administered for thefinancial support of the trust beneficiaries.
(2) (a) The trust principles referred to in Subsection (1) impose fiduciary duties upon thestate, including a duty of undivided loyalty to, and a strict requirement to administer the trustcorpus for the exclusive benefit of, the trust beneficiaries.
(b) As trustee, the state must manage the lands and revenues generated from the lands inthe most prudent and profitable manner possible, and not for any purpose inconsistent with thebest interests of the trust beneficiaries.
(c) The trustee must be concerned with both income for the current beneficiaries and thepreservation of trust assets for future beneficiaries, which requires a balancing of short andlong-term interests so that long-term benefits are not lost in an effort to maximize short-termgains.
(d) The beneficiaries do not include other governmental institutions or agencies, thepublic at large, or the general welfare of this state.
(3) This title shall be liberally construed to enable the board of trustees, the director, andthe administration to faithfully fulfill the state's obligations to the trust beneficiaries.

Repealed and Re-enacted by Chapter 294, 1994 General Session