"the People's Paths!" Cherokee News Path - Cherokee Chief Proposes Record Budget

TAHLEQUAH, OKLAHOMA - Principal Chief Chad Smith has submitted the largest proposed budget in the history of the Cherokee Nation, a sign of the tribe’s continued prosperity and growth. The initial budget proposed by Smith for fiscal year 2007 totals nearly $350 million, with the vast majority of the budget directed to service programs for Cherokee citizens.

“Every year our budget for services to the Cherokee people grows, but what is most impressive is that our largest growth this year comes from the revenue we generate ourselves --- from our businesses,” Smith said. “We are becoming more self-sufficient while creating jobs for our citizens in our home communities.”

The percentage of the Cherokee Nation’s budget funded by tribal revenues, including business operations, has grown to 24 percent, from just 11 percent five years ago. Smith’s budget includes record amounts of funding for important service areas like higher education scholarships, clinic operations, housing rehabilitation, and roads.

The budget calls for more than $113 million in spending on health care, including money to construct clinics in Nowata, Muskogee and Sallisaw. Smith proposed the highest ever operating levels for existing clinics and included a new proposal to add $1 million for cancer treatment.

The housing and community services budget totals nearly $78 million, which includes the highest budgets ever for housing rehabilitation and roads, and funds for the Cherokee Nation’s growing self-help housing initiative.

The nearly $30 million education budget includes the largest amount ever for higher education scholarships and the JOM program, which assists Cherokee students in public schools. It also includes a new initiative sponsored by Chief Smith to create full college scholarships for Cherokee students who are majoring in fields that are in demand within the Cherokee Nation, including a pilot program for nursing. Students who received those scholarships will be required to work for the Cherokee Nation or one of its businesses after graduation to help pay back the scholarship. The education budget also includes a record amount of spending for cultural programs, including language development initiatives and language immersion classes.

The Cherokee Nation’s human services budget of nearly $30 million includes record amounts for child development and features nearly $1 million to fight the methamphetamine drug problem in northeastern Oklahoma. Other major service areas, including Career Services and Commerce Services, help push the budget for Cherokee Nation’s service programs to nearly $275 million for the next fiscal year.

The Cherokee Nation’s fiscal year begins October 1. The Cherokee Nation Tribal Council will discuss Chief Smith’s budget proposal during a special committee meeting scheduled for 10 a.m. on Thursday, August 31 in the legislative conference room of the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council House.