Arizona keeps its promise to Diné College

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Diné College can breathe easy again.

With the help of Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, the oldest tribally run college in the United States managed to save a multi-million-dollar compact the House and Senate tried cutting from the state's 2006 budget Friday.

The 1999 compact between former Gov. Jane Hull and former Navajo Nation President Kelsey Begaye obliged the state to pay the tribe $17.5 million over 10 years for capital improvements to Diné College. Since the payments began in 2000, the annual $1.75 million has amounted to roughly 12 percent of the sales tax the state annually collects from the tribe.

Upon news that the Arizona House and Senate had passed a 2006 budget without the annual appropriation, Diné College President Ferlin Clark and other Navajo Nation representatives met with the governor's staff in Phoenix Monday to ask that the compact be honored.

"(The cut) would severely impact our ability to maintain our infrastructure needs in the state of Arizona," said Clark.

The money the compact has already brought the college, the president said, was used to replace its satellite campus in Tuba City, and the promise of more had it planning for renovations to its campuses in Chinle, Ganado, Kayenta, Window Rock and possibly Dilkon. He said it was also used to save the college's main campus in Tsaile after a power outage plunged staff and students into the dark for a few cold winter days in late November and early December.

"However," Clark said Tuesday, "the governor remained steadfast yesterday in that she would support a veto of the budget or a line item veto."

Since Napolitano was out of town, her feelings about the cut were actually conveyed to the tribal representatives by her chief of staff for operations, Alan Stephens.

Condemnation
After hearing the news, the Arizona Commission of Indian Affairs which also staved off the House and Senate's attempts to cut its budget and Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. shot off a pair of press releases condemning the Legislature's decision.

"These intended savings would amount to only $1.95 million from the state's (fiscal year) 2006 budget of $8.1 billion, or approximately 0.025 percent of the total annual budget," Shirley writes. "But the harm it visits upon the state's Native people, and its Navajo students, is inestimable."

And, while touting the tribe's sovereignty, the president also noted the disparity in state support for the tribal college compared to other schools.

"Our Navajo students are no less Arizona residents and deserving of state support as students at our other state universities. Yet Diné College facilities, which the Arizona compact funds to maintain, would not make it appear so," he writes.

"Diné College and its students need the support guaranteed by the Arizona compact to keep its facilities maintained, repaired and upgraded. The promise must be fulfilled. Doing so will return multiple benefits back to Arizona as our students pursue their educations, and go on to make excellent contributions to their communities."

Bills vetoed
As it turned out, the governor vetoed the bills containing the cuts the same day as the meeting in Phoenix, according to Stephens.

"The governor views (the compact) as a commitment made to the tribe, and the state shouldn't be reneging on that," he said.

This wasn't the first time the Arizona Legislature has attempted to cut state funding for the compact, and it might not be the last.

"It happens every once in a while," Stephens said, in part because some legislators aren't aware that the money is a recurring cost tied to a compact with the tribe.

Clark says it has more to do with the opinion of some Arizona lawmakers that, since the tribe may soon have gaming money to spend, it shouldn't be relying so much on state funds. He rejects that view.

"It shouldn't be an excuse to deny us funding," said Clark, who was reminded by the Legislature's actions of the many treaties the United States has made and broken with tribes through the years.

If the cuts weren't vetoed, he said the tribe would even have considered taking legal action against the state for breaking the terms of the compact.

Stephens said that wasn't a factor in Napolitano's decision to veto the cuts, but conceded that the state might have put itself at risk if she hadn't.

So the tribe's compact with the state is safe for now, but next year could be another story.