The Ruby's Inn incorporation request was rejected by county commissioners repeatedly, but last winter, lawmakers approved HB466. It looked "innocuous" to county officials at first, who said the bill only had the intention of expediting the process of incorporating a town. It passed without a single dissenting vote.

But at a legislative committee meeting in June 2007, just before a special session of the Utah Legislature, Garfield County commissioners told lawmakers about Ruby's intention to incorporate and said that action would be "disastrous" for their county residents.

The committee said it would return to the issue at a future date, but by then the damage to Garfield County might already be done.

Gardner said legislative leadership was backing the bill, and he wonders why.

"For what benefit? What is the long-term benefit for the state having done that?" he asks. "I don't see any. The county was standing in the way for a good reason."

In years past, the county commissioners could have denied the petition for incorporation if they considered it to be infeasible.

However, the change to state law now requires counties to grant approval for incorporations of towns between 100 and 1,000 residents.

The law was changed to allow residents in unincorporated areas who are frustrated with their county services to take matters into their own hands, said Lincoln Shurtz of the League of Cities and Towns. In an area that meets the standards for population and resident support, 50 percent of the residents and landowners have to support the petition to force the incorporation.

Those opposed to the "sweetheart deal" believe the Legislature probably will revise the new law allowing incorporations like that of Bryce Canyon City, but these same officials predict "Rubytown" will be spared by a grandfather clause.

"I don't think it's good policy ... and I don't think that's what the Legislature intended," Gardner said.

A moral question?

The rest of Garfield County's residents are finding out how much they are paying for this. The county has announced that a tax increase needed to refill county coffers will be $50 to $70 a household. Taxes on businesses and residences used as second homes will double.

"So the retired couple in Panguitch is going to pay more so the guy from New York can see Bryce Canyon," said Gardner.

The tourist is an obvious beneficiary, Gardner said. And the other beneficiary, he said, is Syrett, the owner of Ruby's Inn. "Clearly, their bottom line is going to go up," Gardner said.

Indeed, officials who gathered recently beneath the timbered beams of the hotel lodge seemed almost giddy.

"We're excited to be a town because we want streets up to our homes," said David Tebbs, Syrett's son-in-law, who is also a new town council member and in charge of the restaurant at Ruby's Inn.