State trust land reform is critical to meeting needs for open space protection.
There are 9.2 million acres of trust land in Arizona, lands held in permanent trust for the state’s school system and other beneficiaries, including its universities. Currently, income from state land leases and sales accounts for only 1 percent of total education spending in Arizona. Although this will never contribute a majority percentage to school revenue, it certainly can be increased.
Another reason for reforming the management of these lands is to preserve thousands of acres identified for open space protection in numerous plans throughout the state. An important part of this reform involves identifying “conservation lands” — state lands that are valuable to communities and the state as open space.



