Money, money, money
Everybody wants it — but there’s just so much to go around

By John Christian Hopkins
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Some old sayings are steeped in truth, such as “too many cooks spoil the stew.”

Or, there are too many delegates to keep all their hands off the Unreserved, Undesignated Fund.

Last year, when putting together the annual budget, some of the delegates looked at the long-term picture, and devised a way to help meet the unmet needs in the Navajo Nation, by setting aside money to be used as a revolving, capital improvement fund.

That way, they reasoned, the Nation would always have money on hand to get projects done.

Only ‘always’ apparently doesn’t stretch as far as it used to.

The thought was to set money aside to fund projects that will be reimbursed by the state, when the state paid the reimbursement, the money would be put back in the fund.

There was $22 million in the reimbursement fund, but a bit here and a bit there, whittled the balance down to $18.5 million.

And there are many voices clamoring for a piece of the pie before it runs out of dough.

During the winter session, Council debated using the money to pay for projects that have already started and run out of money. However, with discrepancies in the number of projects and costs between the Office of the Controller and the Division of Community Development, the Council threw the matter back to the Budget & Finance and Transportation and Community Development committees to resolve.

The result came before a special joint meeting of the B & F and TC/DC committees Wednesday.

The separate lists from the controller’s office and community development have been reconciled, said Capital Improvement Office Director Casey Begay.

“It is high time we move forward with these projects,” Begay said.

But while they may have taken a step forward, how many steps backward did they slip?

“There are still too many confusions,” B & F’s Nelson Begaye said.

A lot of hard work has gone into reaching a list of capital improvement projects that all sides can agree on, Controller Mark Grant said.

“Both lists agree with each other,” Grant said.

With $18.5 million in this revolving project fund, the list of projects handed over to the two committees totaled $19.9 million.

TC/DC wanted to use $12.3 million of the revolving fund to pay for construction shortfalls for 18 projects, at different chapters, that were started, but stalled due to a lack of funding.

“These are pork barrel projects,” TD/DC’s Willie Begay said. Just like the U.S. Congress, delegates are scrambling to grab as much money as they can to bring home to their own chapters, Begay said.

Council will never come to agreement on which projects to include on the list, because delegates will argue over why their chapters aren’t on the list — or aren’t listed as a high enough priority, he added.

The result is that money gets divided so finely, that few projects ever get completed, Begay said.

“Every year we try to do a Band-Aid situation,” Begay said. “We run the government on a shoestring budget. We never have a plan. We need to discipline ourselves. We’re in limbo now, a Catch-22.”

Money was specifically set aside for reimbursable projects, and ever since then, many delegates have been champing at the bit to get their hands on it, Begay suggested.

The problem when the legislation came to Council was that it was supposed to be for shortfall projects that had already started — but new projects were included on the list, B & F Chairman LoRenzo Bates said. The joint committees need to come together on a recommendation for Council to consider, Bates said.

How did the Nation deal with reimbursable projects in the past, TC/DC’s Omer Begay Jr. asked? They were dealt with without having a special fund set aside, he added.

“You’re reinventing the wheel,” Omer Begay said. “We already have money for reimbursable [projects], who is the bottleneck here?”

In the past, after a project eligible for reimbursement was approved the money was taken from the General Fund, Grant explained. After the state made its reimbursement, the money was put back in the General Fund, Grant added.

That’s a haphazard way to do business, B & F’s Pete Ken Atcitty said.

“It’s kind of like paying Paul by taking money from Peter,” Atcitty said.

“That’s not a good way to do business,” B & F Vice Chairman Leonard Chee said.

TC/DC Chairman Sampson Begay said that the legislation presented at the last Council session contained 28 projects, with a total cost in excess of $22 million. But Council said no new projects would be considered, he added.

Now, in an effort to compromise, TC/DC was willing to back funding for 18 shortfall projects — at a cost of $12.3 million, Sampson Begay said.

That would leave just over $6 million in the reimbursement fund, Bates added.

In the end, the two committees agreed to sacrifice $12.3 million for shortfall projects and hope to keep $6 million in the reimbursement pool.

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