Navajo Nation Council’s Fall Session begins Monday

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — The Navajo Nation Council will meet Monday for the 2008 Fall Session, usually a week-long event, but given that there are a number of items under new business requiring supplemental appropriations, it could be a short week.

Though the Nation is not even a month into the new budget for Fiscal Year 2009, according to the draft agenda, there are requests for supplemental appropriations from the Undesignated Unreserved Fund Balance for the following:

• $500,000 for Rehoboth Christian School to assist in financing a sports and fitness center, and academic programs;

• $2.5 million for the Navajo Election Administration to construct a new building;

• $200,000 for Fort Defiance Chapter to buy a grader;

• $5.197 million for phase one construction of the Many Mules water line extension at Black Mesa;

• $5.7 million in the form of a grant to Red Valley/Cove High

School for construction of a gymnasium/technology center.
Before tacking on even more requests through amendments to proposed legislation, that adds up to $14,097,094.
Controller Mark Grant said Thursday, however, that the amount available for appropriation from the Undesignated Reserve is zero.

“We’re in the process of closing out ’08 right now and we won’t be finished until next Friday. After all that close-out is done, all of the balances roll forward. Then we’ll know what the reversion numbers are, what the personal lapse number is going to be, and then we’ll be able to start working on the UUFB. So it will be mid-November before we have the final numbers.”

Of course, delegates could try another raid on the Minimum Fund Balance, which was tapped during the last Council session. By law, the balance currently should contain $12.7 million, or 10 percent of the prior year’s budget, which was $127 million. Instead, the balance is about $8 million, Grant said.

“The Minimum Fund Balance is an amount that should be held in case we have an emergency — in case the government shuts down, in case Peabody says we’re not sending you any more money — things like that. The government would have enough money to last six months and we could do an orderly shutdown or whatever needs to be done,” he said.

But a few years back, somebody decided to change that law — from enough money to operate six months to 10 percent of the prior year’s budget. “The amount should be $12.7 million by law, but now it’s below even that,” he said.
The only other option is to tap into the Permanent Fund. As of Oct. 1, 2005, 95 percent of the fund’s income became available to supplement operations of the Nation’s government, however, 50 percent of the fund’s income goes to the Local Governance Trust Fund.

“They can’t do the Permanent Fund because that needs a five-year plan,” Grant said. Former Budget and Finance Committee member Harold Wauneka introduced such a plan last year, but it was tabled.

The final option is to delete all items requiring supplemental appropriations from the agenda, which pretty much guarantees there will be a special session sometime after the new balance for the Undesignated Reserve is determined.

During Monday’s session, Council will receive a report from Speaker Lawrence Morgan, while President Joe Shirley Jr. will deliver his State of the Navajo Nation address.

Old business includes establishment of the Division of Diné Veterans Services; enactment of the Navajo Nation Unauthorized Recording Act of 2007; and approving policy and procedures governing the nomination, review and awarding of the Dine Nation Medal of Honor.

Other legislation include enacting the Board of Education Act, changing the plan of operation for farm boards, creating a Chief Executive Officer position at Navajo Agricultural Products Industry and eliminating the title of General Manager, and enacting the Navajo Nation Healthy Start Act of 2008.

A complete copy of the Fall Session agenda is available at www.navajonationcouncil.org — click on downloads.