Oldroyd said GOED didn't stall the airport deal, because the GOED board was only supposed to read (and hopefully approve) a consultant's report on the deal. That consultant was hired by the treasurer's office, not GOED. But that report never got to GOED, because St. George pulled out of the deal before it was finished.

Lawmakers struggled a year ago to help the growing city at the state's southwest corner build a new $168 million airport, and Utah's congressmen helped deliver $119 million in federal aide. Now the city is doing it themselves, by moving various internal city funds around, McArthur said, and may actually be better off financially by avoiding the state's involvement all together.

"We're used to doing that down here, and we will make it happen," McArthur said. "The airport will open on time November 2010."

For his part, Clark was disappointed that the state was not a player in the project.

"I'm very disappointed that the state won't participate in one of this state's — this region's — major economic projects," Clark said. But there is still some significant unhappiness in the Legislature at the treasurer's office, stemming from disputes between Ellis and legislators during the election season, when the legislators supported former Rep. Mark Walker in the treasurer's race. Those disputes included charges of bribery against Walker by Ellis that resulted in ethics charges and the eventual resignation of Walker from the Legislature before ethics hearings could start.

Walker also entered a plea in abeyance last month to a misdemeanor charge related to the incident.

Now Ellis, and his predecessor, Ed Alter, are being accused of dragging their feet on the bonds. The state is also charging St. George $250,000 in fees for the work, even though the bonds were not issued.

Ellis says most of the work on the bonds came before he won election last November. "We were constrained by our own bond counsel requirements and state law" in how his office proceeded on the city's airport bonds, Ellis said.

"We had to do due diligence, and we did," he said.

Part of that due diligence was information from the developer of the old airport site, Anderson Development, which was not provided. Also, a new appraisal of the old airport property had to be made.

McArthur said the city couldn't wait for the state to collect information from the developer that the developer didn't have and for the appraisal of the old airport site to be completed. After all, two previous appraisals had shown the land to be worth more than the bonds.

So the city went alone, cutting the state out of the deal.

E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com