Arizona Gets Partial Shutdown Refund

By Laurel Morales
October 28, 2013

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Arizona has been refunded some of the money it sent the federal government to reopen the Grand Canyon during the government shutdown.

The state paid the National Park Service $651,000 to open the Grand Canyon for a week. Congress came to an agreement before those seven days were up.

Andrew Wilder is a spokesman for Gov. Jan Brewer. Wilder said Arizona received the unspent $186,000 last week.

That leaves $465,000 dollars that the feds still owe Arizona.

“We’ve reached out to our congressional delegation and they’re working with members of the delegation to seek congressional authorization to provide that funding back to the state and to put pressure on the administration to possibly administratively provide the money,” Wilder said.

The money is going to the state tourism office and the town of Tusayan, which ponied up $200,000 to reopen the park. States were reimbursed for similar actions after the 1995 shutdown.