WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — During a Feb. 14 special meeting, the 25th Navajo Nation Council’s Budget and Finance Committee took action in passing and approving Legislation 0012-25, the Comprehensive Budget resolution for Fiscal Year 2025.
This legislation allocates critical funding for support direct services to the Navajo people at both the central and local levels, veterans, youth, and elders throughout the Navajo Nation.
“The Budget and Finance Committee continues to put our people first and that means pushing a comprehensive budget through the legislative process,” Budget and Finance Committee Chair Shaandiin Parrish said. “The committee prioritized the comments made at the public hearings and incorporated them into this budget. The goal is to incorporate as many direct services as we can into a sustainable budget. In Section 2 of this legislation, the BFC also recommends implementing the budget through retroactive accounting methods to account for the continuing resolution.”
The FY2025 Comprehensive Budget resolution appropriates the full operational budget for each program in FY2025 and replaces Resolution CS-39-24, the current FY2025 Continuing Resolution, with the exception of unmet needs covered under CS-39-24.
The proposed budget allocates almost $530 million for the Navajo Nation’s overall FY2025 Operating Budget, which includes over $21.5 million for the Legislative Branch’s Operating Budget, almost $19 million for the Judicial Branch’s Operating Budget, and almost $453 million for the Executive Branch’s Operating Budget.
Additionally, the proposed budget sets aside over $26.5 million from the FY2025 Operating Budget to cover fixed costs for several programs, chapters, and boards. It also appropriates almost $15.5 million from the Unreserved, Undesignated Fund Balance to address unmet needs within various programs.
During the special meeting, the BFC made several legislative concern amendments that support transparency and other amendments that supported unmet needs of chapters that were not advocated for in the divisions but instead taken from the public comments.
The Committee also found several personnel budget discrepancies that hid layoffs as abolished positions, and directed programs to validate their positions and vacancies. The programs then used their vacancy money to ensure the filled positions were funded. The committee did not approve of any layoffs or abolished positions if they were filled positions.
The BFC also passed an amendment requiring all programs to submit quarterly reports detailing the number of employees who received step increases, bonuses, and performance evaluations during the previous quarter. This will help the Committee assess how GWA funding has been allocated and spent, as well as identify any employees who did not receive compensation increases due to incomplete performance evaluations.
Furthermore, the Committee passed amendments instructing the Navajo Department of Health, Division of Aging and Long-Term Care Services, to provide an assessment on the planning, construction, and operation of long-term assisted living homes to both the Health, Education, and Human Services Committee and the BFC. Additionally, the Division of Community Development is tasked with offering workshops through regional agencies to address the Committee’s unmet needs report from public hearings.
“The Budget and Finance Committee spent many hours combing through each budget form presented by the various departments, divisions and branches, but this work is for the benefit of direct services to our people,” Parrish said. “Personnel remains a top priority, and we are committed to ensuring operations continue through the end of the fiscal year.”
The BFC approved Legislation 0012-25 with a vote of three in favor and none opposed. The legislation will now proceed to the next meeting of the Naabik’íyáti’ Committee.
