Council OK’s last budget; tries to safeguard funds
WINDOW ROCK
The 23rd Navajo Nation Council on Sept. 4 unanimously adopted the $767 million fiscal 2019 budget accompanied by 25 amendments.
This will be the last operating budget that the 23rd Navajo Nation Council will discuss and there were stipulations.
The proposed budget would allocate more than $704 million for the executive branch and over $16 million each for the legislative and judicial branches. Delegate Jonathan Hale’s amendment placed a restriction on the president’s office and Council from spending more than 33 percent of the FY 2019 budget until the new president and Council are sworn in on Jan. 8, 2019.
“My thoughts are president will line-item veto this,” said Budget and Finance Committee member Leonard Tsosie, telling the Council they need a better way to make sure money isn’t spent. “He will spend and he will leave one cent for the vice president when he comes in. You are going to see tons of traveling.”
Hale, who is not running for re-election, said when he first joined the Council, the former administration had spent dollars knowing they would be leaving so this is to prevent that from happening again.
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