Navajo may lose nearly $20 M

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — The state of Arizona is considering recalling and recouping all outstanding grant awards made to the Navajo Nation, according to Budget and Finance Committee Chairman LoRenzo Bates.

In response, Bates introduced and received approval Wednesday from the Navajo Nation Council for emergency legislation to be sent to the state, urging the Legislature and Gov. Jan Brewer to honor the state’s outstanding commitment of grant awards and refrain from recalling the funds.

“As you all know, Arizona is in a deficit of $4 billion, and they’re making major cuts. By Council acting on this legislation, it sends a message that the Nation is taking a position — do not cut,” said Bates, who recently was appointed to serve on the Intergovernmental Relations Committee’s Task Force on State Affairs, designed to bring greater focus to the evolving priorities of the Council to state legislators.

While attending Brewer’s inauguration in Phoenix, Bates said he met with Chris Deschene and Arizona’s lobbyist on the proposed cuts to the state of Arizona. “At that time, Mr. Deschene presented a list of general cuts within those budgets. What was not listed was the impact to the Navajo Nation,” Bates said.

With the assistance of the Office of Management and Budget’s Contracts and Grants they went through how the proposed cuts would impact monies appropriated from the state of Arizona.

“If you look at the total, it’s a considerable amount — a grand total of $20 million,” Bates said. That means that programs which provide direct services to the Navajo people will be impacted and those people will be coming to the central government to find replacement dollars, he added.

“Your vote of 70 or more sends a message to the state of Arizona legislators not to do this. We cannot sit here, regardless of what the outcome is, and not guarantee that they still won’t cut. Nevertheless, it’s a position that this governing body, as well as the president and vice president can take and send to the state of Arizona, not to cut,” Bates said.

Eric Descheenie, legislative staff assistant for the Office of the Speaker, informed Council that the state plans to cut 10 percent across the board and then look at other areas.

He said a special meeting was to be held Wednesday afternoon to look specifically at state dollars provided to Navajo.

“Not only do we need to send messages to the state of Arizona, but also to New Mexico, as well as Utah,” Leonard Anthony told Council.

Lorenzo Bedonie agreed, saying, “We all know that the Navajo Nation is also predicting a shortfall in the amount of over $33 million. We all are aware that we need the money and we need to reiterate that to the state of Arizona as well as New Mexico.”

Leonard Chee told Council that though funds and grants are made available to the Nation, “a lot of the funds are not expended, especially the capital outlay funds. In certain aspects, the Navajo Nation government is responsible.

There are a lot of carryovers and unspent funds and they use that as an excuse not to fund us in the future. My recommendation is somehow, somewhere soon, we need to streamline these tribal processes.”

He recommended the speaker look at creating a task force to streamline the process.

Delegates Katherine Benally and Willie Tracey added that there has been a problem with the Nation failing to submit invoices to request reimbursement.

Tracey requested that language be added to the legislation to support Diné College in receipt of its $1.7 million annual entitlement, while Jonathan Nez requested that language be included in support of tribal liaisons, who may be on the chopping block.

The emergency legislation, with amendments, was approved 74-0 and sent to Phoenix so that it could be considered in the afternoon discussion.