By Alia Beard Rau | The Republic | azcentral.com
Arizona counties in recent years paid out at least $16,000 in taxpayer dollars to a controversial states-rights group that now faces fraud allegations in several states.
The American Lands Council, run by Republican Utah state Rep. Ken Ivory, advocates forcing the federal government to hand over control of federal land to western states. In Arizona, about 42 percent of the land is controlled by the federal government.
According to the organization’s website, Apache County, Mohave County and the Eastern Arizona Counties Organization in 2013 each paid $5,000 to become silver members of the group. Navajo County paid $1,000 to become a bronze member.
