Grand County commissioners voted Tuesday to pay for most of the county's share of the Moab-to-Arches shuttle out of Fund 47 — the restricted account holding a local sales tax voters approved in 2015 for roads, trails and sidewalks.
The county's $500,000 commitment, approved in May, was originally to come out of transient room tax mitigation — the portion of the visitor lodging tax set aside for costs tied to tourism. The budget amendment splits it: $350,000 now comes from Fund 47, and $150,000 stays in transient room tax.
The budget amendment containing the shift has not been formally adopted; the public hearing on it stays open through August 12.
The vote passed 4-0. Commissioners Trisha Hedin and Mary McGann had left the room during a debate that turned personal in its closing minutes and drew repeated points of order. Commissioner Jacques Hadler abstained, then left as well; the meeting's final three votes were taken with three of seven seats empty.
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What the budget documents show
The amendment packet spells the split out in two line items.
In Fund 26, the transient room tax mitigation fund, a new "Shuttle System" allocation appears at $150,000, flagged in the county's own notes as a "Novel Allocation." In Fund 47, a new "Shuttle Contribution" appears at $350,000, annotated "Optional Sales Tax for Shuttle System" — the optional sales tax being the voter-approved local add-on to the standard state rate — paid for by a $350,000 draw from the fund's accumulated balance.
For scale: Fund 47's optional sales tax is projected to bring in $345,346 this year. The shuttle contribution is larger than the fund's entire annual sales-tax revenue, which is why it comes out of savings rather than income. The budget line it is booked to — "Contribution to Other Agencies" — has carried $2,000 a year in each of the previous budget cycles.
The disagreement is about who actually pays
Residents who spoke against the move framed it as shifting the bill from visitors onto locals — asking commissioners to consider what share of the shuttle would be funded by visitors through the lodging tax versus by county residents through a sales tax on their own purchases.
Chair Melodie McCandless, participating remotely, rejected that premise. Sales tax, she said, is also paid mostly by people passing through: "When we talk about sales tax, 70% of that comes from visitors. So just like the TRT tax comes from the majority of visitors, but all of us go out to eat and we pay that tax as well." By her account visitors cover about 70% of the optional sales tax and residents about 30%.
Moab Sun News has not independently verified the 70% figure.
McCandless also disputed that the draw endangers the fund: "We're not depleting it. Depleting it would be taking all of the money out of it. There's still gonna be money in there for maintenance. There's still gonna be money in there for roads, and it continues to grow." The fund, she said, is restricted precisely to transportation uses and a shuttle is one — "this is what the optional sales tax is for."
What Fund 47 pays for now
A restricted fund can only be spent on the purposes it was created for. Fund 47's came from a 2015 ballot question asking Grand County voters to approve a local sales tax for transportation improvements — roads, trails and sidewalks. In practice it has paid for maintenance on Moab's paved bike paths and for the salaries of Grand County Active Transportation and Trails, the county's trail crew, budgeted at $368,030 this year. It also carries the Spanish Valley Drive trail, budgeted at $2.4 million.
Hadler made the lengthiest case against the draw, then abstained from the vote. He told the commission he rides the paved path four times a week and that the county's maintenance obligations are growing: five-eighths of a mile being added to close a gap this year, another 2.3 miles toward Utahraptor State Park, and eventually the Spanish Valley multi-use pathway, which he described as a transportation corridor for residents in the new neighborhoods south of town.
Hedin, before she left, made a related argument about the 2015 ballot question: the tax was presented to voters for community transportation needs, roads and active transportation, and she said she did not believe anyone then foresaw it paying for a shuttle carrying tourists into Arches National Park.
He pointed to a stretch of path near Bloody Mary wash that washed out two years ago and was repaired only recently. Fund 47, he said, is what the county would draw on if something worse happened. His broader concern was about how restricted money behaves: "There's always less of an appetite to dip into the general fund than there is to use these restricted funds."
In the same remarks, McCandless raised a question about where Fund 47's balance came from. Looking back at 2021, she said, the fund held about $600,000; it later held roughly $1.8 million. "How it grew from $600,000 to $1,800,000 is super interesting, and I'll have to look back," she said, "because that optional sales tax of $345,000 a year makes me wonder if there was a little bit of putting money from TRCCA that maybe was in there. So, just throwing that out there."
TRCCA refers to a separate restricted tourism tax. She offered no evidence for the suggestion and did not pursue it.
Public comment
Roughly a half-dozen people spoke at the earlier budget public hearing, most opposed. Speakers argued the fund was sold to voters for local road and trail maintenance rather than for operations inside a national park; questioned who bears liability if a rider is hurt waiting for a shuttle; said the county had not surveyed residents before committing money; and warned that insurance costs and staff time to administer the program are not reflected in the stated price. One commenter from a local bike-shuttle company said the Fund 47-maintained paved trails are how her riders get back to town.
Three speakers supported the shuttle, citing reduced parking congestion at trailheads and lower emissions.
How the pilot got here
The commission first committed the $500,000 on a 4-3 vote May 19, at the first regular meeting where the proposal appeared as an action item and after the county attorney told commissioners he had not had time to read the 37-page contract. Hedin, Hadler and McGann voted no.
On July 7 the commission awarded the operator contract to Via Transportation and accepted a $1 million grant from the Utah Department of Transportation, both 4-3, with the same three opposed.
Tuesday added two more. The commission signed a cooperative management agreement with the National Park Service setting how the county and NPS will jointly run the pilot, and approved a service agreement with Via not to exceed $2,860,000 — a motion that also gave the chair authority to approve conforming changes to the final document. Both passed 4-3, again with Hedin, Hadler and McGann opposed.
Still open
The 2026 budget amendment itself has not been adopted. That public hearing remains open for written comment through 5 p.m. Wednesday, August 12, at commission@grandcountyutah.gov.
Disclosure: Via Transportation, the shuttle operator named in this story, is a current Moab Sun News advertiser. The company purchased a driver-hiring advertisement running in this and next week's print editions at standard rate-card price. It carries no commitment regarding coverage, and Moab Sun News's reporting on the Arches shuttle — including pending public-records requests — continues independent of that relationship.
Reported from the August 4 Grand County Commission meeting and the county's mid-year budget amendment packet. Full record, video and searchable transcript: Meeting at a Glance: Grand County Commission — August 4, 2026.
This story is part of our Grand County Commission coverage. See all 349 stories →
Also part of: Issue: Arches Shuttle Pilot
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