ELECTIONS, POLITICS, & GOVERNMENT
State of Utah withholds taxpayer funds from Grand County after scathing audit
Sep 21, 2024, 7:00 AM | Updated: 9:16 am
Months after a scathing audit, the state of Utah has put a freeze on any new taxpayer money going to Grand County. (KSL TV)
(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.”
Read the full story at KSLTV.com.
Related: Several groups protest use of taxpayer money for SLC entertainment district
