By
Benny Polacca
With an 8-2 majority vote, the Fourth Osage Nation Congress passed a bill to abolish the five-member Tax Commission board and to establish the Nation’s Tax Commission office as an Executive Branch department overseen by a director.
The passage of ONCA 14-83 ends the board’s 22-year span after the Executive Branch said it would like to cut down on expenses with the board eliminated from the governmental budgets.
The bill’s introduction and passage also comes in wake of a Congressional Office of Fiscal Performance and Review audit of the Tax Commission operations which called into question the accounting processes used by the Tax Commission and issued recommendations for updated software for the entity’s record keeping.
Congresswoman Alice Buffalohead is the sponsor of ONCA 14-83 and agreed to do so after meeting with Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear’s office, which proposed the bill. On Sept. 16, the Congressional governmental operations committee met to initially consider the bill.
Buffalohead said ONCA 14-83 was written by Executive Branch officials and noted she believed the bill’s creation did not come easy. “Sometimes making decisions like this is not always the popular thing to do to a large group of individuals or a small group of individuals but this is a business decision, not a personal decision. The Chief and Assistant Chief, who overwhelmingly won the constituents’ votes, have been making those decisions of what is in the best interest of the Osage people and they determined indeed this is it,” she said.
Buffalohead said she also came to her own decision to support the bill after reading the July 30 OFPR audit report on the Tax Commission, which called into question whether Osage Nation vehicle tags were being properly issued.
In an August interview with the Osage News regarding his first few weeks in office, Chief Standing Bear said having the Tax Commission board was “cost prohibitive” and he was already considering eliminating boards/ commissions he does not believe necessary. Standing Bear also said: “It’s just so cost prohibitive to have a commission over a group that doesn’t bring in the revenue that it used to because of the compact that was entered into with the state of Oklahoma. The Osage Nation entered into what, in my opinion, is a terrible tobacco compact and it’s about to drive all of our businesses out of business. So the revenue’s going down and we have this bureaucracy. At the same time, we have had a tremendous amount of disruption on the staff level that the Tax Commission is not showing us they are able to handle.”
The OFPR audit report also came around the time Tax Commission office administrator Mary Mashunkashey resigned her position. John Star Bighorse is currently serving as interim director and responded in the OFPR report that he will work to correct the audit findings and recommendations including an update to the software system for record keeping.
In a Sept. 8 statement from the outgoing Tax Commission members Beverly Brownfield, Teresa Rutherford, Robert “Bobby” Walker Sr., Rhonda Wallace and Milton Labadie, the commission said it disagreed with ONCA 14-83 because it removes oversight from the Tax Commission office and expressed disappointment the bill was filed without input or discussion from the commission. Chief Standing Bear said he met beforehand with the Tax Commission and that statement was an “outright lie.”
The commission also took issue with ONCA 14-83 because it seeks to change the eligibility for Osages interested in purchasing ON vehicle tags, therefore prohibiting tags from being sold to those Osage C.D.I.B. holders who do not possess an Osage Nation membership card: “Another area of concern with this legislation is the requirements to register and receive a motor vehicle tag with the (Nation). The eligibility (for a tag) has been amended to only allow the Osage Nation government, individuals who are members of the Osage Nation, their spouses or legal entities principally owned by individuals who are members of the Osage Nation to be eligible to register motor vehicles and receive tags. This means if you only have an Osage C.D.I.B. and not a membership card, you will not be allowed to register a vehicle. Passage of this portion of the bill would also result in a loss of revenue to the (Nation),” the commission said in its statement.
Brownfield and Rutherford appeared at the Congressional committee meetings held during the Tzi-Zho Session to consider ONCA 14-83. Brownfield said the Tax Commission was working to address the audit findings and noted she and the other commission board members were unaware the accounting issues were happening. “I’m not trying to pass the buck, but no we did not know,” Brownfield told the governmental operations committee on Sept. 16.
Executive Branch plans
Assistant Principal Chief Raymond Red Corn pointed out the five-member Tax Commission oversees a department with a staff of five compared to other entities overseen by boards with larger employee numbers, including the three-member Gaming Commission which is in charge of a department with 125-plus employees. The Tax Commission members, like other boards and commissions, draw monthly stipends and receive travel assistance from the Nation.
ONCA 14-83 amends the Nation’s taxation law to remove the Tax Commission board and establish the Tax Commission office as an Executive Branch department staffed by a director and supporting employees. Red Corn said there are plans to hire an experienced Tax Commission director with a law degree.
“We do understand that carrying appeals, complaints are part of the Tax Commission’s job, but that’s why we have an administrative procedures act, that’s why we have a court system,” Red Corn said of the one-person director’s post.
Not all Congress members supported ONCA 14-83. Congressman and governmental operations committee member Ron Shaw said: “I still have reservations that the Executive Branch can take all those responsibilities – not that they’re not capable or they can’t obtain competent people – I’m still concerned that’s a service issue.”
Red Corn said the plan for the Tax Commission overhaul calls for the director’s post to report to the Executive Branch’s director of operations.
ON Attorney General Jeff Jones, whose office represents the Tax Commission, addressed the committee and referred to the appeals process in case an individual wants to dispute a Tax Commission decision. Jones said under the proposed plan, the Tax Commission would be receiving appeals of disputes. “I don’t know if the director is managing day-to-day operations, but that director is also hearing the appeals – I don’t know if there’d be a conflict there.”
Jones noted under the outgoing system that Tax Commission appeals go to the five-person board instead of the Tax Commission director for an administrative remedy before heading to tribal court, if needed.
8-2-1-1 vote
Congressman RJ Walker refrained from voting and discussing ONCA 14-83 during the session because Tax Commission member Bobby Walker Sr. is his father, so he abstained from the committee and final vote of the bill. On Sept. 24, Congressman Archie Mason was absent when the bill came up for a vote.
Shaw restated he wasn’t convinced the board’s abolishment was the solution. “My concern is this is perhaps a personnel issue … I think to change the structure is the wrong remedy,” he said.
Congresswoman Shannon Edwards said she was undecided before the vote but noted she believes change needs to occur and “I’ve been here for eight years and there’s been eight years of continuous problems.”
Voting “yes” for ONCA 14-83 were Congress members Buffalohead, Edwards, Otto Hamilton, John Jech, John Maker, Angela Pratt, William “Kugee” Supernaw, and Speaker Maria Whitehorn. Congressmen Shaw and James Norris voted “no.”
A vote for an alternate effective date for ONCA 14-83 to take effect immediately failed with a 5-5 tie vote and one abstention from Walker. Therefore, there will be a 60-day period for the Tax Commission transition to take effect.
On Oct. 2, the Tax Commission issued a statement thanking those who supported the board: “The Tax Commission Board is comprised of dedicated, retired professionals that have less than sixty days left to serve the Nation. With the removal of the board the Osage Nation will have lost the combined total of 47 years of Tribal Tax experience. The Tax Commission Board has enjoyed their service to the Nation and wishes the utmost success to the government of the Osage Nation and the people they served.”
Original Publish Date: 2014-10-03 00:00:00