Idaho’s Bannock County is considering an ordinance that
would create an “overlay” zoning
district on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. The idea is that the county would
“serve” non-Indians who live on the reservation, while the tribes would then be
limited to zoning its own members.
This is a script from an old playbook. Basically, the county
views the Shoshone-Bannock government as little more than a social club with
authority over its own. The tribe will likely respond with litigation to
enforce its ordinances — and the next decade will be defined by chaos and
rules that no one understands until eventually a court rules for one side or
the other.
This script is still around because when the United States
government reverses its policies, it rarely removes historical weeds. So tribes
and local governments both cite federal law to support their claim. In simple
terms: The old policy, called termination, would have ended tribes as
governmental units, but that idea was abandoned during the 1970s in favor of
tribal self-determination. Yet the laws to implement termination — such as
those that give jurisdiction to states — remain on the books, thus setting up
a back-and-forth battle about which government does what.
That script makes no sense in an era of government
constriction. Smart governments will look for ways to leverage services instead
of engaging in expensive litigation with duplication as the winning goal.
The context here is that state and local governments are
about to get hammered fiscally. (Actually it’s already happening, but the pain
was offset by federal stimulus money.) Recently Fed Chair Ben Bernanke, in his usual careful
language, said there was an immediate “fiscal drag coming from state and local
governments from the withdrawal of previous federal stimulus …”
Most counties get the bulk of their operating money from
property taxes, nationally more than two-thirds of their revenue. And in its
day, the property tax was a gravy train. Every year home and land prices went
up — as did the local budgets. But that’s no longer the case. Counties report more
people are delinquent on their property taxes (as well as mortgages). The
National Association of Counties puts it this way: “ Residential property tax collections
are among the hardest hit of the county revenue streams.”
And, as property taxes shrink there will be increased
political pressure to recalculate property taxes based on the current worth of
homes and land. That is a slow process resulting in even less funding for
counties.
But counties are already showing the financial strain. A
survey last year by the National Association of Counties reported that 37
percent of counties laid off sheriff, police and fire personnel. (This year’s
numbers should be out next month.) And as county operating deficits increase
there is a growing tension about the balance between police and fire versus social services.
In this environment, effective counties will see tribal
governments (and their ability to deliver police, zoning, water quality and
other services) as a way to leverage governmental services. Any jurisdictional
conflicts can be worked out by agreement, essentially modern treaties written
at the local level.
That is already occurring. The National Association of
Counties — historically an adversary of tribal governments — touts on its website: “Role-reversal: Indian
tribes help other governments.” The story is about local government
partnerships with tribes There are also significant tribal financial
contributions made to school districts
to community colleges.
Of course there is a long history of tense relations between
tribes and county (and other local) governments and the current economic
situation isn’t going to change that immediately. Some counties will cling to
the old script and waste resources. But a growing number of local governments
recognize the advantages of working with tribal governments because it serves constituents.
It’s time to rewrite the old script and create partnerships that work for every
citizen. It will make for a better neighborhood.
Essays in the Range blog are not written by High Country News. The authors are solely responsible for the content.
Mark Trahant is a writer, speaker and Twitter poet. He is a
member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and lives in Fort Hall, Idaho. Trahant’s
recent book, “The Last Great Battle of the Indian
Wars,” is the story of Sen. Henry Jackson and Forrest Gerard.
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