Hoopa Tribal Council Approves $68.8 Million Budget

TRT File Photo.

K’ima:w Medical Center Takes $1 Million Dut, ICWA Funding Cut by Half

By Allie Hostler, Two Rivers Tribune

Earlier than last year, but still late, the Hoopa Valley Tribal Council approved a $68.8 million budget on Monday, Nov. 21 at a re-scheduled meeting, and against the will and comments of two Hoopa Tribal members who commented at the final hearing.

According to tribal law, a completed budget is due by Sept. 1, each year so tribal operations can continue seamlessly through each new fiscal year that, for the tribe, begins on Oct. 1. Last fiscal year a budget was not passed until January. This fiscal year, a budget was routed for public comment on Oct. 21 and approved one month later.

“The budget is a never-ending, complicated, long, drawn-out process,” said Hoopa Tribal Chairman, Leonard Masten Jr., who is responsible for overseeing the budget process. “We’re constantly trying to find the monies to come up with a fully funded budget…Some tribal programs are grant funded with funding coming in at different times. This makes it a challenge to put together a total annual budget.”

Masten explained that in the past, the tribe has had money sitting in the bank making it easier to carry departments until their grant funding rolled in. Now the situation is a bit tougher. With cash flow problems, the tribe is having difficulties carrying departments that expect funding, but haven’t yet received it. Masten said his staff is currently looking at ways to make the process easier.

The fiscal year 2012 budget is increased by about $10.5 million from the prior fiscal year’s budget, a shock to some tribal members like John Robbins.

“I have some grave concerns as to tribal elected officials continuing to use projected revenue, projected net profits, and depleting all of the tribal reserves,” Robbins said during the hearing on Nov. 21.

Robbins put together a detailed analysis of the proposed FY2012 budget that he presented to the council. His biggest concern is that tribal revenue is misrepresented by projected revenue from the tribe’s money making entities like the Roads and Aggregate Enterprise and the tribe’s mini mart and service station.

Masten said the increase in the tribal budget was due, in large part, to an increase in grant funding. He named the $4.5 million disaster relief aid grant as being a large portion of the budget increase.

Most of the tribe’s 83 line items saw either a small increase or decrease, while a few saw major changes. The largest blow was dealt to K’ima:w Medical Center which saw a decrease of about $1 million, with a total budget of about $10 million. Their loss is a direct result of nation-wide cuts to Indian Health Service funding.

“KMC is going to have to get creative with what they can keep and what they can afford to get rid of. It’s tough to downsize anything,” Masten said. “It’s wages. It’s positions. Nobody wants to put those things on the line. We’ve known these cuts have been coming for a while, but now that it’s a reality, we’re going to have to deal with it.”

The Indian Child Welfare Act program also received a nearly $100,000 cut to their budget, which is about half of its total operating budget.

The tribe’s recreation department saw an increase of nearly $100,000 from its previous budget of $173,000.

The tribal administration budget is up by about $1 million with the most significant increases occurring in the plant management department, Tribal Employment Rights Office, Insurance, Fiscal, Council and Chairman’s line items.

Masten said that a new program dubbed ‘The Golden Handshake’ was approved, and $100,000 was set aside for it to be implemented. The retirement incentive program has not yet been fleshed out on paper, but the concept is, in short, to provide a retirement incentive to employees who have reached or exceeded retirement age.

“If some take it, great. If they don’t, then so be it,” Masten said. “We hope to have something in place by the first of the year.”

So far, offering medical insurance for a year and $10,000 severance pay is how the package is shaping up, however the details will not be available until after the first of the year.

During the public comment phase, Marcellene Norton, a former Hoopa Tribal Councilmember saidshe is worried about the future of the tribe.

“What are you doing for the future,” she asked. “You have to be far sighted. It’s not about what happens today. Do you as a council want to go down in history as the council that bankrupt the tribe? I don’t understand how, in this economy, you’re increasing spending.”

Councilmember Joseph LeMieux shared similar sentiments. “We don’t want to have a budget bigger than last year’s,” he said. “I disapprove of the Golden Handshake and I’m not voting for this budget, not in these economic times.”

LeMieux was the only councilmember to vote ‘no’ on the motion to pass the budget resolution at last week’s meeting.

At the Oct. 20 tribal council meeting, a motion was approved to move about $1 million in funds from Hoopa Forest Industries ($400,000), the Hoopa Mini Mart ($400,000) and the General Reserve ($107,770) in order to fulfill Fiscal Year 2011 obligations.

Newly elected Councilmember Ryan Jackson said, “We are amidst the most serious cash flow problem in our tribe’s history, why is it business as usual?”

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