This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2006, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Jonah is trying to ingest a whale down on the Utah-Arizona border.
After years of talking about it, the small city of Page, Ariz. - pop. 7,000 - is following through on a proposal to annex more than 21,000 acres to the north and west of town. It's all in a bid to reel in sales tax revenue from Lake Powell's Wahweap and Antelope Point marinas, where thousands of visitors eat and sleep, and moor and fuel their boats.
Such an annexation would more than double the size of the city. More important, Page officials estimate the new revenue would swell the city's coffers by $400,000 to $600,000 annually, translating into improved services and new amenities for tourists and residents alike.
"There are so many positives here," says Page Mayor Dan Brown, "that I don't see a downside."
Others do.
The area proposed for annexation includes Glen Canyon Dam, a significant portion of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and land claimed by the Navajo Nation. And that has created no small amount of friction between the city and the National Park Service, the Bureau of Reclamation and the tribe.
All three organizations strongly oppose the annexation. For the Navajos, there is a sovereignty issue; the tribe currently oversees the Antelope Point marina in conjunction with the Park Service. For the Bureau of Reclamation, there are security concerns revolving around the dam in the post-9/11 environment. And Park Service officials and advocates, beyond complaints about an extra level of taxation and management, see such an annexation as setting a potentially dangerous precedent.
"This is a very serious issue for the park," says Glen Canyon spokesman Kevin Schneider. "If this goes through, what's to keep other communities from annexing parks for the sales tax? What would stop a city like Jackson from annexing part of Grand Teton?"
The Park Service, the bureau, the tribe and others formally presented their objections during a public hearing held just before Thanksgiving, a prelude to what will be a yearlong process of gathering the requisite number of signatures supporting the proposal.
The irony here, of course, is rich. Page didn't exist before 1957, when it was created as a housing outpost for the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam. And the existence of Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is what helps nourish a large share of the city's budget today.
But Brown and other annexation advocates claim that Arizona's law buttresses their bid and say they have no plans to back off. The federal agencies have no standing in this case, the mayor says, because they don't pay local and state taxes.
The agencies counter that they do indeed have standing as property owners. But Brown believes the whole issue is really "much ado about nothing," citing previous annexations in and out of the state where municipalities swallowed chunks of federal land.
"The city of Sierra Vista annexed Fort Huacha 40 years ago and got revenue from it," Brown said. "The city of Peoria annexed [Bureau of Land Management] land, including Lake Pleasant and its marina. The marina now pays city sales tax."
But Schneider and others say this may be the first instance where a city has attempted a "hostile" annexation, one that the Park Service and Bureau of Reclamation have opposed. And they cite federal laws that prohibit the annexation of U.S. government holdings where there is a "potential for friction" between the annexing municipality and the federal government.
"Glen Canyon National Recreation Area has specific management priorities and objectives placed upon it by public law. Here, there could be the potential for both interference and friction between the city and the National Park Service," Glen Canyon Superintendent Kitty Roberts said in an October letter to Brown.
One charge consistently leveled at the city by annexation opponents: Page wants all the benefits of annexation, but has grossly underestimated the costs of providing services to an expanded city. Particularly in the realm of law enforcement, firefighting and search and rescue - not to mention homeland defense.
"We continue to be concerned that annexation creates the potential for interference with Reclamation's national security responsibilities at Glen Canyon," Kenneth Rice, Glen Canyon's dam and powerplant manager, said during the Nov. 21 public hearing.
Annexation opponents say the city has yet to present a 10-year plan for managing such issues, as required by Arizona law.
Brown, the Page mayor, says the city would essentially replace Coconino County in terms of providing emergency services and bolster its police and fire resources with the new tax revenue. He assumes the Park Service and Reclamation would continue to maintain current emergency and security staffing levels.
But Schneider, the Glen Canyon spokesman, says the city shouldn't assume anything.
"The mayor thinks we and others will continue to provide these services, but these are lean budget times for the Park Service and other federal agencies," he said. "Priorities could change."
And annexation critics believe the city also is playing fast and loose by claiming that Aramark, the Park Service's concessionaire at Wahweap, is not eligible to participate in the annexation process because it does not technically own the property at the marina. But the company, Glen Canyon Superintendent Roberts notes, "pays a significant share of real property and personal property taxes," a figure that she says will approach $230,000 for this year.
The Navajo Nation, meanwhile, is disputing the city's ability to annex Antelope Point, claiming the resort sits on tribal lands. Page has claimed the marina, based on its elevation below 3,720 feet elevation, is by law land controlled by the Park Service. But Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley asserts that even below that mark, the tribe has an agreement to manage the marina jointly with the Park Service.
Finally, annexation opponents argue that another layer of taxation, on top of federal fees and county taxes, will ultimately put a dent in visitor numbers.
Brown, however, says the time has come for annexation because Page has long provided water, sewer and electricity to the targeted area, and because it badly needs the money. Surrounded by the Navajo Nation on three sides, he says that Page cannot grow except through the park lands.
"We're a small town," he says. "Half-a-million bucks is a lot to us. That's a new fire engine and a lot of services."
Now, both sides are digging in. The city has 12 months to collect annexation signatures; opponents have the same time frame to stop it.
"It's pretty clear what the city's intentions are. Sales tax revenue is always the spoils of war for local governments," said Bill Hedden, director of the Flagstaff, Ariz.-based Grand Canyon Trust.
"It's not so clear what the benefits will be to the users, or to the gateway communities around the other national parks if this is allowed to happen."