Official: Combine funds to pay for projects

By John Christian Hopkins
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Budget & Finance Committee member Nelson Begaye is tired of talking the talk instead of walking the walk.

“We seem not to be getting anywhere,” Begaye said Tuesday. “We’re just talking again, this is just a report again.”

Begaye’s comments came as Community Development Director Arbin Mitchell was making a report to B & F on the status of capital improvement projects throughout the reservation.

As far as prioritizing capital improvement projects, that isn’t likely to work either, Begaye said. Each delegate will look at the list and want to get as much sent to his community as he can, Begaye added.

The issue is money, Mitchell said. Often the Nation gets enough money to start a project, but not to complete it, he explained.

There are a lot of much-needed projects to be done, B & F Chairman LoRenzo C. Bates said. But the bottom line is: “How are we going to pay for it?” he wondered.

Bates had an idea.

The Nation has 11 trust funds holding money for one reason or another — such as the Land Acquisition Fund and Permanent Trust Fund — and the total money from those funds is about $2 billion, Bates said.

Instead of depleting one fund, what if a small percentage was used from each as collateral on a bank loan, Bates wondered?

“I think that is doable,” Controller Mark Grant said. “It would give us a good jump start.”

That’s something to consider, Bates said. The loan could be paid off through gaming revenues, he added.

Bates said figures provided to the committee by Mitchell and Casey Begay, of the capital improvement office, would have to match the numbers from the controller’s office.

“Do they match?” Bates asked.

“Mr. Mitchell didn’t share his report with me, so I can’t opine on his numbers,” Grant said.

Rather than try to agree penny for penny, perhaps the Office of Management and Budget and his office could agree on the top 20 projects to allocate money for, Grant suggested.

There are too many unfinished projects and the list needs to be shortened, B & F Vice Chairman Leonard Chee said. But, it would be next to impossible to remove politics from the process, he added.

Perhaps, B & F and the Transportation and Community Development Committee should step aside and let community development and OMB work on a list of priorities, Begaye said.

But leaving all the decisions to the executive branch wouldn’t necessarily remove politics from the equation, Legislative Counsel Frank Seanez said.

“I’m sure the president gets pressure from his supporters, too,” Seanez said. “Leaving it to the executive branch would only change the political landscape.”

Mitchell did put to rest one persistent rumor that the Nation had to return $30 million in unspent funds to the State of New Mexico.

“The $30 million that was reverting back to the state was all wrong,” Mitchell said. That figure involved all unspent money throughout the state, and not just the Navajo Nation, he explained. “Our record on reversions is good.”

Several years ago, the tribe had problems with unspent money, but that’s not the case now, Mitchell said. Last fiscal year, the Nation only had about $170,000 in unspent funds, he said.

“The year before that, I don’t think there was any,” Mitchell said.

There are a lot of reasons the money doesn’t get spent, such as a lack of matching funds being available by the Nation, Mitchell explained. Sometimes the communities themselves can add to the problems, he said.

He pointed out a project to bring electrification to the Navajo Mountain and Tall Mountain area.

That project looked like a lot of money being wasted, Committee member Jonathan Nez said. Part of that area involves his chapter of Shonto, and running power lines doesn’t appear feasible, Nez said.

He said he had been suggesting solar panels.

“It blows my mind that we’re spending so much money,” Nez said. “The project doesn’t make any sense to run land lines out there for a few homes.”

The residents being affected don’t want solar power, Mitchell said.

“They said they’d only be able to run a refrigerator and a TV,” Mitchell said.

“If they don’t want it, than maybe they lose out,” Nez said.
Another problem in that area is that it straddles two states, and the Nation has to be careful not use Utah funds for any projects in Arizona , Mitchell said.

Staff shortages also play a role in the time it takes to complete projects.

Mitchell pointed out that there are about 236 projects in the Eastern Agency alone, and his office only has one person who is trying to work with all the communities involved.

“One person to cover those is not enough,” Mitchell said.
The committee directed OMB and the controller’s office to look into the possibility of using money from the Nation’s trust funds as collateral for a loan to complete some of these projects.

“We have to get something done for the people,” Bates said.

John Christian Hopkins can be reached at hopkins1960@hotmail.com