Per capita ranking OK, officials say

"The FrontRunner, which will be opening this weekend, is a very good example of a large amount of federal funding coming to Utah for the betterment of our state," Hatch said.

There is at least one area, however, where Utah's rural counties have long been stressed, says John Nixon, director of the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget.

The federal government owns two-thirds of Utah's land area, for which it pays back roughly $20 million in payments in lieu of taxes each year to counties, he said.

That's a situation that challenges county resources, given that the rural counties could make far more by developing and taxing the land, Nixon said. Additionally, some of those counties have high rates of tourism, and they are responsible for things such as rescues on the federal land.

"There has always been a very big gripe that the federal government doesn't give the state enough money," Nixon said. "It's a payment that is appreciated, but it's not as much as it should be."

---

E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com