WEST WENDOVER, Nev. — It was just talking, but several key players in the bid to merge Wendover, Utah, with its Nevada counterpart say that, after sitting around and discussing the issues Thursday, they may be closer to agreement than ever.

The University of Utah's Center for Public Policy and Administration hosted Thursday's meeting of the local stakeholders in the question of whether the two cities will one day become one. It seems that everyone involved wants that to happen — if they can just overcome some major issues.

And there are several.

A primary concern for local leaders on the Utah and Nevada sides centers around money — more specifically, all the money that Wendover, Utah, owes and the question of who will pick up the debt.

In August, a subcommittee of the Nevada Legislature recommended that the full Legislature urge Congress to OK the proposed annexation. Any change in a state's border must be approved by Congress.

However, the subcommittee included a list of conditions that must be met before Nevada gives annexation the go-ahead. Perhaps the biggest condition: Nevada gets Wendover without taking on any of the debt.

Tooele County School Board Superintendent Larry K. Shumway said annexation precedent in Utah suggests that when assets are passed from one governmental entity to another, they are passed for free — but their debts are passed along with them.

"Public assets go with the taxpayers, except that there is always a provision for debt," Shumway said.

And because school debts are a general obligation bond shared among all Tooele County property tax payers, estimating the debt is a tricky math game. Using rough estimates that have not been verified by the county assessor's office, Shumway said that if all the property in Wendover has a taxable value of about $13 million to $14 million — representing somewhere around 0.77 percent of the overall taxable property value in Tooele County — then Wendover taxpayers carry the burden of about $450,000 to $500,000 of the district's overall $62 million debt.

"I'm not presenting this as a good thing or a bad thing," Shumway said. "It's just how it is."

But Nevada leaders weren't convinced that's how it has to be.

They suggested Tooele County taxpayers eat Wendover's portion of the county's school debts in exchange for the benefits of losing the expense of educating Wendover students. But Shumway said he could neither approve nor reject the idea on behalf of the entire school board.

On the question of Wendover's foundering airport, there seemed to be more give and take in Thursday's discussion.

Tooele County took ownership of the airport in the 1990s to help Wendover avoid bankruptcy. It also took on the city's debts, which are now considered the airport's debts. They now total about $1.8 million. Add to that $2.2 million in operating costs since the county took over, and the airport is estimated to carry about $4 million in liability.