Michael A. Langley

Now that I have your attention, this is really about budgeting. Money tends to grab attention better than budgeting, so I went with it for the title. Besides, the budgeting process usually results in money being spent so the title is accurate. First, I want to state that unlike the federal government, we cannot print money. We are constrained by our budget and the available resources. I wish we could print money because we would help many more people. Secondly, a reminder that our endowments have not only recovered their lost value from the stock market tanking, they have now increased in value. Also, our $25 million emergency fund is still fully intact. We are in good shape all things considered.

Every year we plan a budget for the next year. This year our current 2020 budget was basically shredded by the closure of the casino for ten weeks. Even before we closed in March, daily business was going negative because people were not comfortable due to COVID-19 and were not making the trip to Spirit Mountain Casino. The casino wound up being closed for all of April and May. Since the casino was not open, there was no dividends for three months to fund government operations. Essentially, ¼ of our budget was eliminated. Normally, for any organization, this results in cuts to departments, services, and personnel. We value our services and employees so we do not want that.

The CARES Act funding finally came, and we were happy to receive it. Unfortunately, this funding came with restrictions. The two biggest restrictions were as follows:

1. The usage of the funds must be related to COVID-19 as a response or due to it. We cannot use it for existing budget items unless we can justify in this way somehow. (No, we cannot say the lack of dividend from the casino is due to COVID-19 so all of that counts. We tried.)
2. The funds must be spent by December 31, 2020.

Like all organizations, labor is one of our biggest expenses. Those costs during closure are easy to tie to COVID-19 since we closed because of the pandemic. CARES Act funding covered most of those costs and the casino employees as a result.

More challenging is replacing existing budgets for the other costs. If they cannot be traced back to COVID, we cannot use the CARES Act money. To avoid the resulting budget cuts in programs, services or employees, our staff was going to have to be creative in their approach. We give them general guidance, but they are the experts and do the heavy lifting on how to accomplish. Staff is not finished with that work and you will see more budget adjustments put out to the members as required by our ordinances.

Always a concern is how do we help our members in the most efficient and effective way. Since there are so many factors and unique situations, such as Tribal members with descendant children who are not eligible for enrollment, we elected to use much of the CARES Act for COVID relief payments for every adult member for April through November. The total of these payments is $4400, and they are nontaxable. Our justification is nearly everyone is impacted in some way, whether day care, new equipment needs for online meetings or checking in with our elders, or many other differing ways. Native people always take care of family and extended family. We trust folks know best how, when, and where to get aid to their family members that need it. We also doubled the emergency funds budget and broadened the requirements so more people qualify. The technology funding to students for computers and internet is another example of CARES Act dollars going to the members.

We finally received the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) portion of COVID Relief funding. The plan was submitted by staff in June and written approval was received on July 8^th. The actual money was only received last week. That seems to be the pace with these things and should be somewhat expected with the suddenness of the pandemic. These funds are for housing related issues and have their own restrictions and must be spent by the December 31 deadline. The tasks for the General Manager (GM) and staff was not only how to spend the funds, but also how to backfill our own Housing Department’s portion of the budget hole as much as possible while still working within the restrictions.

Here is a breakdown on what staff and the General Manager decided and provided us this week. Keep in mind, staff only cares about spending the money in the way that helps the most people while finding a way to keep as much of our budget whole as possible. Their decision making is not influenced by Tribal Council living in tribal housing. The following explanations come from the GM:

Total funds received: $937,090 for specific and approved activities under the Indian Housing Block Grant Program (IHBG) formula allocation.

1. Salaries and Fringe for CTGR Housing staff                                                                $272,090
2. Operations and Maintenance – Low Income Tribal Housing                                        $200,000
3. Preparedness for PPE                                                                                                              $175,000
4. Mortgage Relief – Low Income                                                                                              $25,000
5. Housing Office Installation of Preventative Measures for Social Distancing             $40,000
6. Emergency Homelessness Response                                                                                         $50,000
7. Operation and Maintenance – Market Rate Tribal Housing                                       $100,000
8.  Mortgage Relief – Non-Low Income                                                                              $25,000
9. Amended Activity for rent relief – Non-Tribal Housing Units                        $50,000

Doing a deeper dive, items 1, 2, and 7 fill existing budget holes. Items 2 and 7 are where the three month rent waivers for Tribal owned low-income units and market-rate units come into play. The rationale for using Operations and Maintenance (O&M) dollars are because the revenue generated from rents are used for O&M activities in the Housing Budget. In essence, to help fill the budget hole, it was first necessary to give rent relief (which is allowed) in order to put those dollars to work for operations and maintenance. This strategy was directed by HUD. Another note, this budget can be amended if we determine there is a need to move dollars within the activities. However, these changes would have to be proposed to and then approved by HUD.

Item number 9 was a proposed amendment that was submitted and had not received formal written approval. Funds used off reservation and not for tribally owned assets always receive more scrutiny. However, because the dollars were only received last Friday, it has allowed staff time to develop the policies and applications to follow the IHBG plan. This makes the non-Tribe owned housing relief subject to specific approved guidelines and limits established by HUD. That is why the programming for rent and mortgage assistance will be co-managed by Social Services and Housing to coordinate resources for any Tribal families in need. In this way, folks can maximize the benefits available. The income guidelines have been expanded to qualify the most people.

We and staff still have much work to do. Most of the CARES Act money has been budgeted, but still must be monitored to make sure all of it is spent by December 31. We are also being cautious in case there is another downturn. We still have a sizable $8-$9 million estimated 2020 budget hole to fill. If the casino keeps performing well, we believe it will be filled. Casino dividend dollars are the most flexible so we try to use the CARES Act money first and wherever we can to make sure it is fully spent. Most of our focus has been on this current budget and the response due to closure, yet we are also in need of completing the 2021 budget. Things are moving at a fast pace on our end, and the work is rapidly moving forward. Thank you for your patience as we do.