Diné gov’t warns of layoffs

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Proposed cuts in the Navajo Nation budget will result in layoffs, one tribal official said Wednesday.

The Budget and Finance Committee set the Fiscal Year 2010 General Fund budget ceiling Wednesday at $161,452,410 as well as the planning allocations for the three branches of government.

The budget ceiling was reached by combining the $145,963,000 revenue projection with fund balances from all amounts lapsed to the General Fund, estimated to be $15,489,410.

Though committee member Lorenzo Curley recommended they leave the ceiling at $145.9 million, Michelle Dotson of the executive branch opposed the move, saying it would translate to an estimated 40 layoffs within that branch alone.

The planning amounts for the three branches include: Executive, $113,438,493 or 70.26 percent; Legislative, $17,289,868 or 10.71 percent; Judicial, $13,442,652 or 8.33 percent; and fixed costs, $17,281,397 or 10.70 percent. The proposed budget does not include general wage adjustments and step increases for employees in FY 2010.

Chief Justice Herb Yazzie said the judicial branch allocation is not sufficient and that they could be looking at a cut of 25 positions without additional funds. The judicial branch has been asking for an increase in its percentage for the last several years.

In previous meetings the branch chiefs stated that the policy in the budget they are considering for 2010 is no personnel layoffs, Yazzie said.

Branch budgets must be returned to the Office of Management and Budget by June 24. The new budget year begins Oct. 1.

“This means that what you do today, if you don’t increase the allocation for the judicial branch, that by June 24 we would already have subjected our dedicated employees to the trauma and the anxiety of possibly losing a job. This is in addition to knowing that they’re going to have to live on the same salary that they have this year.

“I plea with you that we not do that — that we not subject employees to that trauma.”

He asked the committee to take $1,070,689 from the proposed funding of the litigation fund in fixed costs and add that to the Judicial Branch allocation. “Taking money out of the litigation fund does not take away the jobs of employees, except maybe some non-Navajo lawyer might not get a contract in the coming year.”

Yazzie told the committee that blind adherence to last year’s allocation doesn’t require any planning and that his branch historically gets the least amount for operations.

“The legislative branch has a 60-40 split between personnel and operations while we have, at the most, 15 percent for operations. That problem gets worse if you simply adhere to even last year’s percentages without planning.” The executive branch split is 70-30, he said.

“We need money in our operations budget. I have already told you, for example, that the communities and the people around Pinon, and the communities and people around Torreon are in desperate need of local judicial services. We know the distances that people have to travel. We need to plan for that. We can’t do that with an allocation of $13.4 million. Please recognize that there should be room for planning.”

Committee Chairman LoRenzo Bates said the base amount already had been established at $161 million. “If it drops down to $145 million, as you all have heard, then we are looking at significant layoffs of all three branches.

“The thought of the committee at the time these discussions were going on in terms of these step increases was that a choice had to be made between coming up with a balanced budget, which could include layoffs to get to that balanced budget, or look at alternatives.

“The thought of the committee was that the employees of the Navajo Nation would rather have a job and hopefully they would give up their increase,” he said, adding that if the Navajo Nation Council wants and can identify outside monies, then it has the prerogative to allocate more funds for the judicial branch.