BIA, WMAT in dispute over FATCO, office lease

White Mountain (AZ) Independent ^ | July 23, 2013 | David Roberts

[Migraine]

WHITERIVER (AZ) — Tax breaks, according to economists, are designed to encourage some types of behavior, such as business investment. Taxes and regulation, they say, discourage other types of behavior, such as smoking, drinking and conspicuous consumption. One such project is the Fort Apache Timber Company (FATCO), a once-thriving lumber company that created jobs and kept the White Mountain Apache forests clean and relatively fireproof. According to WMAT (White Mountain Apache Tribe) planning office officials, the tribe has secured $40 million in loans stemming from these tax credits. The loans will ultimately result in $10 million of “free money” to the tribe when the deal winds down in seven years.
However, another branch of the government, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, has the deal on hold, perhaps terminally, while they demand an environmental assessment of the FATCO site.
The site has been shut down for a few years, mostly due to tribal mismanagement by previous administrations. However, it has been a lumber company site since 1964. The deal is exempted from environmental assessments by federal law, said WMAT Planner Joe Waters, because there is no change in the land use.
According to federal regulation 40 cfr §1508.4, “‘Categorical exclusion’ means a category of actions which do not individually or cumulatively have a significant effect on the human environment and which have been found to have no such effect in procedures adopted by a Federal agency in implementation of these regulations (Sec. 1507.3) and for which, therefore, neither an environmental assessment nor an environmental impact statement is required.”
Waters provided documentation of what favorable effect the additional employment would have on the community. No additional detrimental effect could be caused, he said, by using a site for the purpose it was designed for 50 years ago.
According to Waters, the Whiteriver BIA officials kicked the matter “upstairs” to their regional Phoenix office, where the official in charge of environmental assessments reportedly told Waters she will insist on the assessment regardless of what the law says. Such a study could take as much as six months, which could kill the deal, he said.
The problem, Waters said, is that there is a time limit to the tax credits, which are in danger of expiring before the deal can be consummated.

Tribal officials are pretty well connected in Washington, so Waters and Tribal Councilor Clinton Kessay immediately jumped on a plane and flew to Washington, D.C., to meet with BIA officials. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, who grew up on the reservation, sent her chief of staff to the meeting. Indications are, said Waters, that those officials have an interest in working the matter out.

As an additional complication, the BIA lease on their offices in Whiteriver is being considered by the Tribal Council without any environmental review of that lease. Two years ago, Tribal Chairman Ronnie Lupe notified the BIA that their 25-year extension of their original 25 year lease would be expiring about now. He informed them that federal law calls for departments to occupy historical buildings if they are available. Thus, the tribe informed BIA that they should move to Fort Apache. Apparently not taking the suggestion seriously, BIA officials did nothing in the intervening two years. Now, tribal officials are threatening to board up the BIA headquarters if they do not move.
Waters said he would like to know why the BIA does not have to follow the law in the environmental assessment exception rule, nor the historical office building rule.

[Migraine]

Sorry about all the acronyms. Most people know the BIA is the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Most people would not know FATCO is/was the Ft Apache Timber Company. Most of this scenario resembles nothing so much as how US aid to 3rd-world governments works. It would be hilarious if it weren't so pitiful. However, it is still hilarious that 3 liberal groups are playing cutthroat pool here. Any guesses how it will end? At some point, I will give you my surmise.

[Migraine]

Make that 4 liberal groups doing cutthroat pool:
WMAT (White Mt Apache Tribe)
EPA
BIA
Ann Kirkpatrick and the Dem party (liberal congressgirl in an otherwise conservative district, who got redistricted into office by gerrymandering all the Indian tribes in AZ into her the district, and who then voted nearly 100% for her. Suppose the Dem party might have an interest in settling this in favor of the tribe?)

[Buckeye McFrog]

I thought perhaps it was about the Birmingham Institute of Arts, some radio station, and a manufacturing company that was owned by Michael Moore.

[Migraine]

Heh, heh; good one. And that’s why I tried to explain all the players ASAP :)