Interesting Grand County article

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State of Utah withholds taxpayer funds from Grand County after scathing audit​

Sep 20, 2024, 4:58 PM | Updated: 6:43 pm

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BY DANIEL WOODRUFF
KSL TV
SALT LAKE CITY — The state of Utah has put a freeze on any new taxpayer money going to Grand County.
This comes several months after a scathing audit found the county intentionally misspent several million dollars meant for tourism.
The audit came out in June, and the state gave Grand County several months to make things right. State Auditor John Dougall said this week the county has failed to do that, so now the state is withholding taxpayer funds until the county makes necessary changes.
“That really motivates most governmental entities to become compliant,” Dougall told KSL TV, “because if you don’t have tax revenue, you don’t really have money to spend.”

Audit found ‘pattern of abuse’​

Grand County is known for tourism with places like Moab and Arches National Park. But a recent state audit found the county has been misspending tourism tax dollars for years.


“Where we see a repeated pattern of misuse, that causes concern,” Dougall said.
The audit specifically found Grand County spent too much on dealing with the effects of tourism and not enough on promoting it — a violation of state law and a “pattern of abuse.”
“These findings show a consistent pattern of Grand County using statutorily-restricted tourism related tax revenues for unallowable purposes,” the audit stated. “We consider this increasing pattern of misuse to constitute intentional abuse rather than uninformed error. The Commission has the ultimate responsibility for the proper use of county funds.”
The audit told Grand County to fix things, including reimbursing roughly $5.3 million that was improperly spent.
“We have not seen official corrective action yet in regards to what we noted in the audit,” Dougall said.
Now, as of Wednesday, Dougall’s office is withholding taxpayer dollars from Grand County, something state law gives him the power to do.
“We expect them to reimburse those improperly spent funds, to account to us that they have taken that corrective action,” said Dougall. “Then we will release the funds.”

Utah State Auditor John Dougall speaks during the Utah Republican Party Organizing Convention at Utah Valley University in Orem on April 22, 2023. (Ryan Sun, Deseret News)

Grand County responds​

In a statement, Grand County officials said they are working to meet the state’s requirements.
“Completing the necessary review and submission of reports and certifications required by the State, which incorporate corrections agreed upon by the Commission with respect to (tourism tax) revenues, is the highest priority … and will be completed as soon as possible,” said Gabriel Woytek, Grand County Clerk and Auditor.
Two Grand County commissioners, Jacques Hadler and Kevin Walker, appeared virtually this week at a Utah legislative hearing discussing the audit and the county’s response to it.

“I think we’ve only spent money in ways that we feel we are on very, very solid legal ground doing,” said Walker, vice chair of the Grand County Commission, during a meeting of the Political Subdivisions Interim Committee on Wednesday.

But several lawmakers during the hearing blasted the Grand County leaders for not following the law — and not admitting there’s a problem.

“At a fundamental level, we need to figure this out, and you do not have the latitude that you believe that you have based on the findings of audits,” said Rep. Casey Snider, R-Paradise.

Lori McFarland, a Grand County business owner, also spoke at the legislative hearing and said the county is not adequately promoting tourism, which is impacting the local economy.

“Resistance to investing in the visitor economy is hurting workers and their families,” McFarland told lawmakers. “Shifts are fewer, tips are down, and workers are taking on extra jobs or a side hustle.”

But the county commissioners insisted they are “actively” promoting tourism and want to do so responsibly.

“I think we have differing ideas on promotion,” said Hadler, chair of the Grand County Commission, noting that some worldwide destinations have been overwhelmed by tourists. “I think that our messaging with responsible tourism goes a long way towards sustaining our tourism for the future.”

This has been brewing for a very long time. The City actually has a surprisingly decent reputation with the state… the county is strained.

It’s a tough dynamic for sure. They get a ton of TRT revenue that has to be spent on promoting tourism (cities don’t have the same requirements for TRT revenue, it’s unrestricted).

I don’t expect many on here to understand, but it’s a valley of 10k residents that hosts 5 million people annually. I sympathize with the leadership that wants to throttle tourism a bit. It’s also important to remember that GC commissioners are elected and accountable to its constituents, maintaining balance in that community is EXTREMELY challenging.

I hoped you'd chime in

Personally I think GC council members and politicians are in bed with the high dollar developers. They may want to limit tourism for the general masses to push towards more multi million dollar investors?

Just my opinion on seeing what’s been going down lately.


I still want to see the gondola opened finally.

It sounds to me like they are using the money to solve issues caused by tourism. My guess would be things like trail repair, trash, cleanup, etc.
I get that that is not promoting tourism… But it seems like a logical use of tourism money to me.

jeeper said:

It sounds to me like they are using the money to solve issues caused by tourism. My guess would be things like trail repair, trash, cleanup, etc.
I get that that is not promoting tourism… But it seems like a logical use of tourism money to me.

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I'd be very surprised if any money goes towards trail repair or clean up. I think the different off road clubs and organizations have fronted that burden. My understanding is that most of these in power down there are not residents with deep roots and don't necessarily agree with things pertaining to off road.

Pile of parts said:

I'd be very surprised if any money goes towards trail repair or clean up. I think the different off road clubs and organizations have fronted that burden. My understanding is that most of these in power down there are not residents with deep roots and don't necessarily agree with things pertaining to off road.

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Totally possibly agree with you.
I was referring more to the hiking trails within parks and such… But whether it’s trail repair, trash cleanup, or other issues caused by the massive amount of people coming into town, It still seems reasonable to me to use tourism money to clean up after the tourists.

I don't have a deep grasp on the issues, but reading between the lines of the quotes it sure sounds to me like the big money that owns our Legislature wants Grand County to be spending that money to bring in more tourists so that the big money can have more money, and the maybe-not-quite-as-big-money in Moab that owns the Grand County council wants Grand County to be spending that money trying to keep the place a little more exclusive because they didn't go to all the effort of moving here from SoCal and the East Coast just to get overrun by the great unwashed.

I'm probably wrong, not that it matters. They're all gonna do what they're gonna do, and what we think about it doesn't even register.

jeeper said:

Totally possibly agree with you.
I was referring more to the hiking trails within parks and such… But whether it’s trail repair, trash cleanup, or other issues caused by the massive amount of people coming into town, It still seems reasonable to me to use tourism money to clean up after the tourists.

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But it’s not tour ism money. It is our money. I don’t like them stealing my money to promote tourism. Especially in grand county. I agree tourism money should be spent to mitigate the effects of said tourism but the tourists or the businesses that profit from tourism should foot that bill

This state has grown too fast in every way for the last 30 years at least why are we voting for people that spend our tax dollars to lower our quality of life

bobdog said:

But it’s not tour ism money. It is our money. I don’t like them stealing my money to promote tourism. Especially in grand county. I agree tourism money should be spent to mitigate the effects of said tourism but the tourists or the businesses that profit from tourism should foot that bill

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If it is TRT money, then technically no it is not our money. It is a tax that is paid by the people collecting the TRT money, which ultimately was paid by the people using the services. However, the state has very specific rules on how TRT money can be used by the counties.

Ok well never mind. I have never heard of TRT

Grand County is big, i understand the issues with Moab, so why arent they promoting all the other natural womders in the county for tourism instead?

The county can use funds for the following,
Utah Code 17-31-2(d) allows TRT revenues to be used by the County to mitigate the impacts of recreation, tourism, or conventions by paying for solid waste disposal, emergency medical services, search and rescue, law enforcement activities, and road repairs and upgrades.

Looks like they exceeded the amount allowed for mitigation by $400k according to the link in the article.

Odd that they also handed out about $200k in flood relief from tax payer money. If my house or business floods, I'm sure I won't have to rely on the insurance I paid for and the .gov will hand me some floor relief money.