$1 Billion: Use it or save it?
Bates wants to save; others say spend, spend, spend

By John Christian Hopkins
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — It was Benjamin Franklin who said “A penny saved is a penny earned,” but it’s LoRenzo Bates who is saying $1 billion saved can soon be turned into $2 billion.

Bates, chairman of the Budget & Finance Committee, convinced his colleagues to increase the amount of money being set aside for the Permanent Trust Fund from 12 percent to 18 percent.

The PTF currently holds $1.36 billion.

The PTF was established in 1985, with a percentage of tribal revenues set aside and invested to guard against lean times down the road. For 20 years the fund could not be touched, after that time the interest could be used, divided between the Nation’s central government and the Local Governance department.

However, before the interest can be used, Council must enact a five-year spending plan. Though the 20-year period has lapsed, Council still has not agreed on a five-year plan.
“For every dollar the Nation gets, we’re taking 12 cents for the Permanent Trust Fund,” Bates said. “We’re saying ‘Let’s increase this to 18 percent while we decide how we want to spend it.”

At the current 12 percent, the PTF would reach $2 billion around 2016, Controller Mark Grant said. At 18 percent — approximately $36 million a year — the PTF would hit the $2 billion level in the spring of 2015, Grant explained.

More aggressive investing could move those timetables up slightly, Grant said.

But not all the delegates looked with favor on Bates’ plan.
The Nation has lots of unmet needs, and that extra 6 percent would have to come out of direct services, Delegate Roy Laughter said.

“Once we reach $2 billion, someone will say ‘Let’s go for $3 billion,’” Laughter said. “The wheel has already been invented, we just need to do it so it meets the Navajo Nation’s needs.”

People need waterlines and power lines, and all sorts of needs, Delegate Harold Wauneka said. Setting aside more money for the PTF will mean less help for the tribal communities, Wauneka said.

“We know there are a lot of needs out there,” Delegate Peterson Yazzie said. “It will never end, there will always be needs.”

Delegate Lorenzo Bedonie pointed out the Hard Rock Chapter house was condemned and has been closed since 1997, and that community needs money now to build a new chapter house, he added.

Delegate Amos F. Johnson added a directive for B & F and the Transportation and Community Development Committee to develop a five-year plan for consideration during the spring session.

A five-year plan was introduced, when he was vice chairman of B & F on the last Council, Wauneka said. But Council twiddled its fingers and no action was taken on it, he added.
Bates’ legislation was passed, 44-31.