The Oneida Middle Class Wages - Under Attack

The Oneida Middle Class  

Are we doing right by our middle class?

By Vince DelaRosa

　

Oneida, WI - Across the United States there is a great debate occurring around where the wages and jobs are heading for the middle class, and I see some disturbing trends.

There is a shifting employment landscape in America; some have concluded that America's workforce is splitting into high and low-paying jobs. The middle-income demographic is disappearing. This is a phenomenon which leads a lot of people to believe that the middle class in America is under attack.

One recent set of numbers lays out a terrible national factoid which should make all of us take notice, and that is that 400 rich people, most of whom benefited from the multi-trillion dollar taxpayer "bailout" of 2008, now have as much money and are worth more than the combined assets of 155 million Americans. 400 people with more net worth than 155 million people combined. This is a staggering statistic, it shakes you to your core and it's just not right.

Are the economic systems broken in America? Not sure, but they're sure on shaky grounds. Is it ok for a disproportionate amount of insiders to be running wild over the middle class people? In America it seems, the real wage earners, the workers, they're getting the short end of the stick, or the shaft as some would call it.

I will note, it is well documented that a lot of these 400 people were making money off of our misery when our worthless 401 (k's) took a major nose-dive in 2008. 400 people waltzed into the winners circle. Now many of them are arguing how they should be making more. Many of them want tax breaks while a lot of state government's are looking to use union busting tactics so they can supposedly balance budgets. All of the wealth grabbing in 2008 was going on while millions of us were losing our homes and many today are now swimming in waist-high debt.

Today, you have people on the national scene talking about why the party for them should go on. Should we tell them that the music has stopped for many of us? Many of these same people who have benefited from the nation's financial collapse, they want more. Look at what Governor Scott Walker is doing, trying to supposedly balance a budget on the backs of workers, while big business gets tax breaks in the millions. The Governor's phone call with someone whom he thought was a wealthy supporter, the Koch brother, illuminated what the Governor's real intent is.

On the national level, think about this, some Wall Street types (and their business friends) make over a billion dollars a year – each year. These are some of the same people that are saying they need more benefits and tax breaks. How much is a billion dollars? How can you visualize an amount of money that high? Here is one way to think about it: The median household income in the U.S. is around $29,000, meaning half of us make less and half make more. If you make $29,000 a year, and don’t spend a single penny of it, it will take you 34,482 years to save a billion dollars. Over 34 thousand years! The average life expectancy is what; 70 to 80 years? We are screwed. Being average in this country might not work out for some of us. Commodity cheese may be in some of our futures, and not by choice.

I really see some similar things, on a smaller scale, happening in Oneida and it makes me wonder how much is enough from some in management. If you make $80 or $90,000.00 or more dollars a year, and you're at General Tribal Council (GTC) meetings saying you deserve this, what is at play here? Is this a power-play, is this someone who is not aware that resources only go so far, or is this just greed? There are people here in Oneida that need assistance, there are many homeless an unemployed Oneida's.

Now think about this, it appears to me that Oneida might be operating under a horizontal axis pay scale, where we go from low-income jobs, to high-income jobs, and the valley in the middle is the eroding middle class wage earners. In Oneida, most of the employees fall into the lower middle class wage earner spot. The Oneida middle class are the people that make the money at the casino and run all of our various programs. These are the people we see when we receive any service from the tribe. The middle class in Oneida is all of us, and then we have a few high paid people. It's believed we have around 60 to 80 high paid people.

The phenomenon of "median income stagnation" — the weak pay increases for middle-of-the-spectrum earners — has been around for years here, and for decades on the national level. The ironic thing here is the people that earn the money for us, these are all the middle class workers. The middle class Oneida's are the bread winners here, not the high wage earners.

Management at the top doesn't make any money, they spend money. Ironically, the high wage earners here are paid at a far better rate than the Oneida's who are making the money and providing the services, is something wrong with that picture?

Another problem we have here is, as I was preparing this article, I wanted to break down certain sectors of the pay system and exhibit to the Oneida people some real stark examples of what is occurring around our wage system, but the system is a secret. I cannot access the system. Your wage system here in Oneida is kept completely in the hands of only a few people; it's a big secret for some reason.

Today there is no leadership on this issue. There are no cost of living adjustments, there is no pay raises and there is no safety valve, nothing. When you look at who did not support the employee's in the past and who did not support the employee's at the GTC wage petition meeting, it speaks volumes about the priorities of the current Oneida Business Committee (OBC). I have a link at the bottom of this article which speaks to some of these wage issues.

In Oneida there are two emerging issues (Bonuses and Wages) which are at the heart of all of this, and neither subject has been addressed properly. For example, at the last wage petition meeting, there were actually some people in management - at that meeting - talking about why they deserve to be making the money they're making (over $1,900.00 or more a week), while also opposing your employees raises. This was amazing to learn about this. I also looked at the minutes from the meeting and I could not believe what transpired at that meeting. A few management types opposed your wage increases - right in front of you guys - the employees.

Amazingly, they opposed the employees wage increase petition from the GTC, while some in management are now advancing a call that says: "If there are cuts to be made, we should all get cut equally." These are the same people who are not being paid equally; they are making far more than most employees. In fact, some of these people make more than 5 to 8 times what one (1) Oneida makes! Further, some of these people make more than six Oneida families combined, does that sound familiar? Not as dramatic as the 400 to 34,482 numbers above, but you get my point, the system needs to be leveled out.

When someone who is making way more money than you says, "Cuts should be made equally," while they earn a salary which is far superior to yours, don't listen to that person. There is nothing equal about what is going on here for the Oneida middle class. Remember the American example above, some people just want more money and sometimes enough is never enough!

Management appears to be running a slight-of-hand game on the employees. Sadly, the OBC is allowing this to happen. Indirectly, the employees and the GTC are also allowing this to happen. This occurs when we approve a budget at the budget meetings. Why are we approving budgets which do not protect the interest of the employees? When you approve a budget with no raises for yourself, you are condoning what's going on here. The employees have to be heard at the next budget meeting.

It's worth noting, many employees are 8 to 10% or more down in earning and buying power because of the lack of raises over the last few years. Management this year is going to offer a reported 1.8% raise to employees. These across the board wage increases need to stop. This is a disproportionate raise distribution method. The higher wage earners are gathering more in wage increases then the lower wage earners in this system. An across the board pay increase scenario satisfies short-term, but long-term it creates a real disparity between wages because the higher wages gather larger increases.  This is simple arithmetic. I addressed this in a petition some 10 years ago, but I guess we haven't learned our lesson.

The people who really earn the money around here, the middle class, I argue they should be getting the bulk of the raises. To me a 1.8% raise is not enough. Moreover, the people at the top of the pay scale, they need to understand that this nation has other challenges. The top wage earners should feel blessed that they've received the wages that they're getting. Today, the Oneida middle class needs some attention.

I think the time has come to have some discussions around wage-caps. Maybe we need to look at freezes for high wage earners, all of these issues need to be considered. We cannot financially turn things around by targeting the lowest paid people amongst us. Look at the employee bonuses that were taken from the employees last year, that's targeting the employees. There has also been talk about taking away personal and vacation days, that's targeting the employees. There has been no pay raises for years, that's targeting employees. If we could eliminate waste here the Oneida middle class could flourish!

A wage cap needs to be considered at some point. Most of these management types have feed long enough from the Oneida financial stream, its time to close the spending down so we can distribute resources out to the people and to the employees, the middle class. The shaky middle class pay situation which is emerging needs to be addressed by the new OBC.

This is all quite amazing. This is the kind of stuff that usually draws thousands of employees to march on governments, like what happened in Madison, WI!

Maybe we can stem the tide in July as we seat a new government. This current OBC is simply out of touch. Look at the last wage petition packet, a majority of the OBC did not support pay raises for the employees. Only the Treasurer, Tina Danforth and Councilman, Ed Delgado supported a pay raise, it's written right in the Budget Packet packet handout from September 18, 2010. Look at pages 60, 61, 62, it's all in writing.

We really need solutions here, we need leaders who will address these wages issues. What we do not need is the sounds of the highest paid amongst saying, "Pay me more, keep paying me more."

We need to turn a new chapter here, both on the wage issues and when it comes to the leadership who is out of touch with the Oneida middle class!

* Wage article link: TOUCH HERE

* Here is another article on the issue: TOUCH HERE 

Budet Problems - Time for change?

 Is it time for some changes here? Revisited!  

                                     By Vince DelaRosa

Green Bay, WI – This is a re-printed/re-tooled article from a January 2011 blog that I did.

Listed below here is an e-mail I sent to a very high ranking tribal official on December 11, 2009. I wanted to share this e-mail with my readers to get some wheels turning and some ideas generated about what I view to be one of the most blaring weak spots in our operations. Today, we have very weak auditing systems and non-existent financial regulatory systems. These are conditions that are a classical recipe for financial collapse.

We do not have stimulus dollars on the ready to rescue us, and these weaknesses are proving to be almost too much for us to handle. In Oneida, we run a largely cash operation, the casino, and we have weak regulations to govern in this area. How did we get to this point?

We really have to elevate our level of thinking around here when it comes to the financial side of our operation. I tried to advance a Budget Management Act when I was in office, but I could not get support. In fact, it has been said on many occasions, we have too many laws, that is not the case when it comes to financial regulations.

Beside my work in office, when I left office, I have been quietly trying to spur the government on to do good, to reform internally, on its own. On occasion, I have sent out information and made calls to try and nudge reform measures or to advance good programmatic activity. It is clear today, advancing good programmatic activity and nudging reform is going to have to come from the Oneida people in the General Tribal Council (GTC) meetings.

Remember, the e-mail listed below, I sent that out two (2) years ago. Today, some two years later, nothing has been done around these matters and we have budget problems. In fact, we have a $479,172,033.00 budget. We have almost four-hundred and eighty-million dollars in budgetary funds. Ironically, we have a projected deficit of $47,581,587.00 over the next two years. How is this even possible?

If you look at the budget packet for the last budget meeting, the Treasurer revealed in a letter to the GTC that the tribe is facing "extreme difficulty in keeping operational cost in line with FY2011-2013 revenue projections."  The Treasurer went on to say, in this same letter to the GTC, "both 2012 and FY2013 are projected to have deficit balances of -$34,680,688.00 and -$12,900,899.00 respectively." Why can’t the OBC keep operational cost in line with revenue projections?

The answer is simple, we have a very flawed budget process and we have no real financial regulatory systems, virtually non-existent. Now don’t get me wrong, there are some systems in place, mostly accounting procedures. But there is a world of difference between having accounting manuals and having financial regulatory structures, there is a vast difference. Under one system you can have your hand slapped, under another system you can be fired if you are out of line with financial regulations. We have people that have committed financial fraud against us and they are still receiving per-capita payments, why are we allowing this type of behavior to go on?

Some want to lay all of this on the economy, but let’s be honest, we have been over spending for some 20 years? Where are the biggest cost points in our budget? I wonder if we really know. Is the upper-end of our payroll system to heavy, or is the lower-end of the payroll system to heavy? Oneida Business Committee (OBC) members can’t even answer that one because they do not look in depth at the wages. I asked to see the wages when I was on the OBC, but I was refused access.

I even authored a memo which I have published here (touch here to see) about the wage systems and some of my concerns. I never received any answers to my questions. I would urge readers to go and listen to the OBC meeting tape from June 11, 2008 and see what kind of support I received from the leaders while trying to address wage issues, it was deplorable; "No support at all." How can the leaders of the organization not know about the true extent of the wages? Why are the wages of the tribe a secret? The time for silence on these matters is gone!

At the time I released the memo below I was trying to promote some thinking around one of the major problems with the tribe today. I have tried to get these systems into place when I was in office, but I did not have the support of the Treasurer at the time. I remember being told, “We do not need more laws!”  “We have too many laws!”

Spending in this government is wasteful, has been for years. Financial regulatory systems are important for a variety of reasons. These systems are needed to permit the people to grab control of financial reforms. Yes we are manning the fort, but things cannot change without some level of reform. We are financially treading water.  

Many, if not most of our businesses are losing money! Some have been losing money for quite some time. Not to mention some of the disastrous investments from the past, Airdiagm and Natures Way comes to mind. Do we need financial regulatory systems and improved auditing oversight systems in place? You bet. This is the key to turning this tribe around financially. We have dead weight and waste that needs to be trimmed away; the time has come to think like real business people. This tribe is our nation and it’s our bread basket. If we do not take good care of our bread basket, we’re going to starve.  The tribe and many of its operations are multi-million dollar business outlets which may be under-performing. We need to get smart about what we’re doing here.

To be able to foster financial change and reform, the Oneida people need mechanisms and regulations in place that they can point to and say, this is not working, we need a change. Pretty soon with the way the economy is going nationally, how will we ever control spending and place spending dollars where they can benefit the people the most? You can’t really rely on management to control their spending, they are a bureaucracy that self-perpetuates themselves, and spend-and-spend, that is what governments do. All management structures need controls put on them. Today, our internal financial budget controls are so weak, the controls have the bite of a toothless lap dog.

If you look at the budget packet for the last budget meeting, the Treasurer herself revealed that the tribe is having "extreme difficulty in keeping operational cost in line with FY2011-2013 revenue projections."  The Treasurer, Tina Danforth is trying, but management seems like they're getting harder to control.

If you were to sift through the budget, you must ask yourself, if we’re having these difficulties why are we spending the way we do? If we can’t afford wages increases, why are we proposing some of the things we do? For example, in the last budget packet, the OBC ask the GTC to support a bird farm (Page 96) proposal while the majority of the OBC did not support a pay raise (Page 60) for the employees. How is this even a logical choice: Birds v. Employees? When is the last time the employees got a pay raise? Luckily the bird idea lost, but so did the employees, no raises this year.

Here is the e-mail I wanted to share with you. I have blocked out the identity of the person I sent this to. Believe me, the person is high ranking! I am also only publishing the most relevant parts of the email.

---------- Forwarded Message ----------

From: <<<Vince DelaRosa>>>
To: XXXXXXX@oneidanation.org
Subject: Hi - Questions and Some Obervations
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:04:44 GMT

December 11, 2009

Dear XXXXX:           

……….I understand things are tough financially, but I wanted to ask a few questions and I wanted to share a few observations with you.

Q:  How is the budget looking for possibly adding some spending (next year) on the Oneida Small Business Project 2000? When I was there we started with over 3 million, but I understand the project has been left bone dry. I had policy recommendations to get that back on track (policy reforms) when I was there, maybe we can discuss those.

Q: How do things look for us (Oneida) financially in terms of the next few years?  Where is spending going?

* OBSERVATIONS:

I know that in your position, it is impossible to do everything and be everywhere; people can tend to get stretched very thin. Likewise, I wanted to share some thoughts with you from my experiences there. There are things occurring there that are obviously up-side down, but have been largely overlooked by many people over the last 30 years, or since gaming has emerged.  

Financial Regulatory Systems & Auditing Improvements

It has been my position that the Tribe is in need of a framework of financial policies. Over the years there has been a lot of overspending and waste. I have done a lot of research around these matters and I estimate well over $92 millions dollars (over the last 15 years) has been wasted, lost, this number includes bad investments.

From and analytical standpoint, as a cash business, we should have a financial regulatory system in place. Accounting policies are good, but financial regulations are non-existent, and those are needed. These two really should serve hand-in-hand, meaning accounting policies and financial regulations. Moreover, all of this should be backed-up with strong governmental auditing work. Today our internal auditing work is very impotent. I do have audit certification from the University of Oshkosh and I've recommended many joint changes, both auditing and financial, so maybe we can advance some discussions around these matters in the future.

Also, as the previous Chairman of the Legislative Operating Committee, and as a previous Audit Committee member, I had offered many financial and auditing reforms that could never get any traction. I also wrote a report that spoke to the need for major financial regulatory reform, across the board, but that was also never really understood. The previous Treasurer simply did not support laws or regulation advancements.

What I was recommending, in part, was to advance across the board policy constraints, through a strong OMB type of oversight structure. The idea was to marry both accounting policies and new financial regulations with upgraded auditing procedures and systems. Obviously that would require some major audit level changes. I am curious if you've looked at anything like that? If there was an interest, I'd be glad to discuss assisting with such a project, it is very much needed. The implementation of this type of system would be a historic first for us.

The need to move towards a major financial regulatory oversight system is really needed. This would have prevented things such as Airadigm and Nature's Way, not to mention some of the over-padded budgets and outright needless spending. One of the keys for us, as we move forward is, how effective is some of our public policy? Meaning, does the cost justify the means, and/or is our public policy really yielding results? This is a more sophisticated way of running the government.

A financial regulatory oversight system would actually empower your office and the Treasurer's office. Ultimately, the fine-tuning of the oversight on the daily spending of the management structure would be more manageable with a legitimate financial regulatory structure. Additionally, this type of system would allow for more transparency and it would allow your office's to better communicate with the GTC on the finer financial points.

This type of system would also allow for what I witnesses as being so needed, and that was; "Internal financial leadership, guidance, technical expertise and team coordination to support the implementation of fiscal management initiatives." Also, needed was timely and active budget analysis, financial reporting, tighter fiscal controls and aggressive auditing oversight. I wanted to advance all of this, but again, I never had any real support. Today is a new day and maybe we can discuss some approaches around these matters.

This type of system would also allow for the following:

·     * The implementation of government-wide policies and standards with respect to Oneida Tribal regulations and guidance documents;

·     *  The quality, utility, and analytic rigor of information used to support our public policy; (Auditing)

 

·     *  Dissemination of and access to easily understood government financial information;

·     *  Accumulations of unique tribal budgetary statistics

It's worth noting, I have found over the years (10 years) that many people in the government did not understand the difference between running the finances for a private corporation, versus that of a governmental entity/structure.  Private sector versus governmental spending escaped people’s thoughts, they just didn't get it.

In the past I had advanced discussions around a position like a "Policy or Regulatory Specialist" that would work closely with the management teams, directors, area managers, etc. to achieve the budget strategies and priorities the Treasurer or GTC dictated. Duties would have included, as I proposed, providing leadership and active daily oversight for the financial activities of the government.         

Well get me a response when time permits. Take care and I hope you have a good holiday season.

Respectfully,

Vince DelaRosa

``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

January 9, 2011

After I sent this message out, I never heard back from the official. This person happens to be a great person, but maybe these issues are just too much to deal with. I am not sure. Why that e-mail was not formally responded to in some fashion, I am not sure. But what I am sure of is that this is the core of one of the major problems here. Weak financial systems are really hurting us.

Maybe someday in the future here, these matters can be dealt with. Eliminating wasteful spending with much needed spending, in the new economic environment, is critical to our future success. 

Good government demands that solid financial systems be in place to protect the financial interest of the people.

Respectfully,

Vince DelaRosa 

Bold Visions in Four Areas

Here is a review of four (4) areas that can spruce things up economically for the Oneida People

“We Can Do This”

By Vince DelaRosa

Green Bay, WI - In this article I will preview four areas I think we need to consider working on to spur long-term economic vitality for the tribe and our people. If we do these things, it will give all of us a living advantage! Meaning these economic pathways can help enhance all of our lives.

I will acknowledge, my proposals are an expansion in the level of financial services that we offer to all of our tribal members. Similarly, I feel this is important because all of us contribute to the millions of federal dollars we receive each year as a tribe. Likewise, many tribal member's are hurting financially and they need a helping hand from their tribe, now it is the tribe's time to extend its helping hand out to the Oneida people.  

"It is worth noting, when our tribe has it's hand extended to the federal government requesting federal money, which we receive each year, we count all of us, likewise, "We all count!" Responsible governments look for opportunities to make life better for their people. My suggestions benefit everyone and that should be our goal, to benefit everyone, employees and non-employees alike. This programming offers and extended hand at a most critical time!"

The truth is, we need to re-visit many of these issues in the future anyway, so getting the jump-start right now is a smart idea. Future planning is going to be the key. I will preview these four areas below with some general suggestions. Of course the GTC can do as they wish, these are only recommendations:

1.) Wages/Retirement Plans,

2.) An Oneida Economic Stimulus Plan,

3.) A Viable Long Term Per-Capita Plan, and

               “Your own private pension!”

4.) More Home / Apartment Construction.

Before we begin our review, I  will also point out here, I do not blame the Treasurer Tina Danforth for any of our fiscal woes, she has tried to bring some level of fiscal sanity. If you look at the letter which she authored in the last budget packet, at least she was honest and forward about the projected deficits. This is simply something that we'll all have to deal with. These are matters which did not happen overnight, and certainly the economy has not been our friend.  

1.) Wages/Retirement Plans-

WAGE ISSUE -

On the wage issue, I think reasonableness needs to prevail. Yes, management can make money, but so can the people, the employees. We have to strike a balance here.

Is it reasonable to have people making 90K or more in a small governmental pay system? Maybe it is, I am sure that perhaps market rates are listed at some of the higher levels, but we need to look at that. This can only be discovered with full disclosure around the Valiant project. Let’s look at it, let’s figure this out, and let’s move on.

The tribal wage structure may need to be re-calibrated and possibly fine-tuned to serve our needs today. I cannot speak authoritatively on the subject until the details involving the Valiant wage project are released.

On the wage issues, I tried to ensure that some of the things that have happened, such as an ill-advised 401K moratorium, no cost of living adjustments, no wage increase protections, bonuses being taken away and reductions in vacation and holiday pay, these occurrences never should have happened. These all should be very highly protected policy areas. These issues need to be revisited. The employees must have a say in these matters, these reductions cannot just be imposed on the employees, it's not fair.

Here is what I tried to do, when I was in office, to make sure these types of things would never happen to employees. On June 11th of 2008, I submitted a memo to the Oneida Business Committee and asked them to intervene on the wage issue. This wage work was known as the Valiant project. Valiant sailed by at a fast rate of speed and there was no oversight.

When work like Valiant is being done, oversight is required. There are rules and policies that needed to be in place, and questions that needed to be answered before the current wage system got to where it is today, but no one cared to do the right thing. I would encourage all of you to go and listen to the tape from that meeting! The meeting date was June 11, 2008 when I submitted my memo. I received very little support to protect your wage interest or to intervene on the Valiant wage policy issues, to ensure for example, that the employees would have structured cost of living adjustments (COLA), wage protections, and a safety valve for wage increases. I got very little support to ensure that reductions in employee benefits would be protected by law. That is the most critical thing here, protecting employee wage rights.

This whole situation was preventable; this is a sad episode in our history. Today there is no leadership on this issue; there are no protections; there are no COLA’s and there is no wage increase safety valve, nothing.

Here is an interesting footnote, in the last budget meeting, the Treasurer, Tina Danforth and Councilman, Ed Delgado both supported pay raises for the employees. That was a positive. Maybe we can build off of this type of support from atleast these two sitting Oneida Business Committee member's. 

RETIREMENT PLANS -

Regarding retirement plans, I was thinking about some previous work I had engaged in while serving on the Oneida Business Committee  (OBC) several years ago.

While previously serving on the OBC, I served on the State of Wisconsin’s Joint Tribal State Relations Committee.  While on that committee I was working on an issue regarding tribal police officer’s in the State of Wisconsin.

The issue at the time was that tribal police officer’s could not enjoy the same pension benefits that other agency officer’s enjoyed.

   *Here is a closer look at the actual state law I worked on, to advance retirement rights on behalf of law enforcement officers:

http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lc/committees/study/2006/STR/files/0055_1.pdf

  *Here is testimony and a letter I delivered on the law above:

http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lc/committees/study/2006/STR/files/oneidaltr.pdf

But the work above got me thinking about our other employees. At the time we couldn’t go there and today may also be bad timing, but I have a very different perspective on these matters then most.

One thing none of us care to think about is old age. But we all must confront this issue sooner or later. I fundamentally view the retirement age in America, in general, as being absurd. Many people are being pushed to the last spectrum of their life before they can retire.  Amazingly some in Congress want to push the age back even further. Some are calling for 70 to be the retirement age. Not sure where that will go, but 70 is way too long.

This idea that people should work, maybe their entire life is outrageous to me. Working from 18 to 70 is too much. I believe people need to be given the option to retire earlier and live a more productive retirement life. Delaying a retirement past the age of 65 is not acceptable, unless an employee desires to work until the end with no downtime for relaxing. My perspective hinges around the idea that people’s average life expectancy is not too far past this age of 65 or 70.

It’s my hope that maybe one day, we (Oneida) can advance some discussions in the future to see if we can lay the ground work so people can retire sooner. Utilizing our best years, health wise, for the enjoyment of our retirement years, seems like a smart thing to do.

Some say that pensions are dead, and Social Security (SS) and a 401K will have to do. Well I think we need to discuss this, because my opinion differs here again. I believe that any discussion around this matter will need to include talk about a Three-Legged Retirement Stool philosophy.

I am a strong advocate that retirements in this country, and maybe in Oneida, can be supported three or four ways. Here is what I support:

·        A robust 401k,

·        A healthy pension plan, if we can get the finances tightly configured around these matters,

·        A supplement from the federal SS offerings, and if we can;

·        I would also add in a life insurance plan, which we do have on the table, with the OLIP plan. Maybe that can be looked at to re-configure its original intent to serve two purposes, i.e., retirement augmentation and death benefits.

Today most people and some companies perceive a 401K as the answer. Then they think you can cap that off with a SS plan and you’re set. This is not a proper retirement package. Things such as some personal savings and a little life insurance plan may sweeten the deal, but maybe an employer can do more in the future. Maybe we can.

401K’s were originally designed as an avenue to get additional compensation to upper level management folks.  As such, it was thought as simply one of many points of compensation package, but one that took special consideration about immediate taxation. From those meager beginnings, 401K’s have sometimes become the only retirement plan for the majority of workers.

As a singular retirement tool, 401K’s will always be a little weak. Most people fund their 401K’s with mutual funds. The mutual funds offered within some corporate plans are both limited and sometimes have high expenses.

Maybe one day we can take up this discussion as a tribe and see what we can do. Setting off into our sunset years with a three or four pronged retirement approach will help us all retire with a little more piece of mind.

2.) An Oneida Economic Stimulus Plan-

Please see an article I did on that here: TOUCH HERE.

3.) A Viable Long Term Per-Capita Plan-

As some of you may know, next year the OBC has to bring forward a new per-capita plan for GTC consideration. Several years ago I offered a variable annuity plan. The plan admittedly needs modifications and I am working to craft a new plan that I can submit as a suggested model. My idea was that a tribal per-capita plan can function much like “Your own private pension.” Just imagine if we can get this right and the wage issue above right, maybe we can all enjoy two pensions during our retirement years, how nice would that be?

Under the plan I am proposing now, the following general elements could be at play. The numbers and funding will need to be worked out, but this is possible:

A.      The plan would be listed individually on the balance sheets of the tribal members; it would enhance the financial wealth and economic  standing of each tribal member because we would set up accounts in all of your names. This is your money, you own it.

B.      Payments in the amount of $1,400.00 a year will be made until the age of 55 years is reached.

C.      Payments of $10,000.00 a year for life. Payments for the remainder of your life will be made after the age of 56 years is achieved. If you pass away, the amount you are owed in that given year will be paid out to your beneficiary. 

Maybe we can get our heads around a new plan next year that may utilize some of these characteristics. My plan also suggest getting enough funding housed in the plan, upfront, so we never have to worry about any future funding obligations. The plan would literally be on auto-pilot; minus a major stock market crash.

I do have a copy of my last plan, its four pages long and too lengthy to publish here. Anyone that would like to view that plan can e-mail me and I’ll send you a copy. Here is my e-mail address: Oneida2011@yahoo.com

4.) More Home / Apartment Construction-

To me a new home is an economic tool for our people. Whether it’s a house or an apartment, a new home can change lives. If we can structure low mortgage and rental payments, this can help our people have more money in their pockets and that’s a good thing.

Besides providing much needed shelter, sometimes, just this one act can elevate a person or a family to a whole new level. From credits standards, to equity and economic security, this can be a game changer for many Oneida families.

I am in the process of bringing forward a petition to the Oneida General Tribal Council to discuss and act on housing issues for the Oneida people. Housing on the Oneida Reservation is very limited.  The truth is, on most reservations, the tribal housing authorities simply cannot meet demand. Demand is always outstripping the available resources. This has been going on for some 30 years here in Oneida. We simply do not have enough federal dollars coming to the table and we have none of our own dollars being allocated towards this problem, we need a serious policy shift here.

Today, many tribal members are falling through the cracks. There are a lot of tribal members and families living 3 families deep in 1 house, this is unacceptable.

No longer is it acceptable to expect tribal members to pay upwards of 20% or more of their monthly income on mortgage payments. Also of major concern are tribal members who have to pay very high rental payments for small apartments. Many times these rental payments eclipse 30% of the tribal member’s actual monthly income source.

We literally have an emergency on our hands from two perspectives. First, we have a lot of people in serious need of housing assistance and this has been a constant issue here for over 30 years! Secondly, we are becoming a minority on our own reservation. Hobart, Depere, Green Bay, Seymour and the Town of Oneida are building up all around us and we’re not doing enough. 

The petition will be ready for circulation later this year. I will also note, this project will attempt to address issues that also relate to pending foreclosure issues and housing finance matters which may be impacting tribal members.

With these kinds of bold moves and sweeping approaches, we can enhance the lives of our people. In the next few years, I hope we can tackle these issues so we can forge a bold new future for all of us!

Oneida Economic Stimulus

 We can make things easy on our people

“How about an Oneida

Economic Stimulus Program?”

By Vince DelaRosa

Green Bay, WI  - Today, now more than ever, we really have to question strongly how tribal leaders make decisions as it relates to their tribal members. I see leaders sometimes making things needlessly harder on their people.

As we all understand, this world is getting tougher economically to live in, and the time has come for our tribe to do more for our people. The question we have to ask ourselves is, “Do we want to make life easier for our people?” The answer to this, of course, is yes. So here is some discussion regarding how we may be able to do just that, make life easier.

Before we get to the easy life, I want to give you an example of what I am talking about, when it comes to leadership making things needlessly hard. Here is a prime example of leaders making things harder on the people and it happened on this reservation.

I remember several years ago, Councilman Ed Delgado and myself took a position on the Oneida Business Committee (OBC) that we did not have to count per-capita payment dollars against tribal member’s rents. This was an easy decision because the law allowed for those payments not to be counted against the tribal members rents. But most of the OBC, the General Manager, the Oneida Housing Authority and the Oneida Law office all took another position, they said, “These payments must be counted.” Well after much hassle and wrangling, we were proven to be right and the people’s interests were protected. Why does this kind of action against the people’s interest happen?   

The genesis of a good idea

                       

I also remember during discussions about per-capita over the years, I have suggested we utilize a general welfare program so we can get services out to the people and a lot of people in different leadership positions at the time said, “We can’t do that, peoples’ income will be impacted.”

I was suggesting at the time that we can buy groceries, pay for car repairs, pay for home repairs, supplement rental & mortgage payments, and give out small personal payments, as advances in lieu of whole payments. The truth is that we can construct a general welfare program that can do all of this. This may not be a classical per-capita based program, but rather a stimulus type program where we use our money to address the general welfare of our people. Regardless of what we call it, it’s time to do it.

For example, with the recent federal stimulus money that came to many tribes, some tribes used the money to directly help their people. We distributed our money around for good use, but I really wish we could have seen that money go directly towards trying to make life easier for our people. Direct financial assistance would have been my preference. Our focus needs to start shifting inward.

How about stimulus for us

I would like to see our tribe implement an Oneida Tribe Economic Stimulus Program (OTESP). An OTESP can be used to help the many struggling, homeless and unemployed people that we have on or near our reservation. I also think we can help Oneida’s in other areas. Many tribal governments are initiating their own economic stimulus payment programs to assist tribal members in need and we should too.

Shelter is a great area where the OTESP can be applied for assistance. We really do need to step up in this area. For example, the money we utilize for housing today, that money doesn’t even come from our pockets, it comes from the federal government. Likewise, the new federal budget cuts (17%) are probably going to impact the level of federal housing funds that we get. Today, the Oneida housing waiting list is climbing and we need to start taking some action to do something to address this issue.  

I will note, some of the new tribal stimulus programs are presenting unintended consequences. Whether to utilize tribal stimulus payment for an OTESP is more than just a political decision, it will also take a little work to guard against unintended tax consequences. So some level of financial planning does need to be worked out and understood.

We can make this plan work

How can a good idea have a bad result? Take for example a tribal elder who relies primarily on state or federal social assistance payments to meet their everyday needs. Generally, eligibility for state and federal benefits depends on a person’s income. A tribal OTESP payment might be factored into the income determination, and might also require tax withholding and tax reporting. As a result on some reservations, a tribal elder who is close to the income limit can be pushed over the economic limit and can have their other social assistance payments denied or reduced because of a tribal payment such as an OTESP payment. The good news is that this need not be the case, we can address this.

Tribes can and should take advantage of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) doctrine known as the “general welfare exception.” This law allows Indian tribal governments to make “payments to individuals under legislatively provided social benefit programs for the promotion of the general welfare.” This one step can allow us to help our people without impacting their gross income.

How we can do this is through a properly drafted OTESP. These types of payments must be paid through a “general welfare plan.” As such, if we created an OTESP this program could help our people without harming some of the income requirement issues which they need to be mindful of.

The requirements for such a general welfare plan are as follows: (1) the payment is made from a government general welfare fund, which can be a new OTESP; (2) the payment is made on the basis of need; and (3) the payment is not made as payment regarding services.

Payments from federally recognized Indian tribes meet the “government” requirement. Is there any catch? Well the general welfare exception applies only to governmental payments out of a general welfare fund based upon the recipients’ identified need, which need not necessarily be financial.

Let’s talk about the issue of need. One of the ways documented by the IRS to determine “need” is if the recipient has an income below the “national family median income level.” This limitation may actually not be much of a limitation, given the historically disproportionately high unemployment figures on Indian reservations. How the unemployment rates are on our reservation, I am not sure, but we can address these issues during a drafting stage.

A general welfare plan will set out eligibility criteria which addresses who is eligible. Under an Oneida OTESP we can spell out what types of needs are to be met by the plan (e.g., food, shelter, medical expenses), and all other criteria can be hammered out and addressed during the drafting and public hearing stages. I believe we can do amazing things around this plan, such as the amount and frequency of payments can be unique. I could see us having a program where the tribal member determines when they want to access the fund for assistance. We’ll also have to have some device for verifying the need-based eligibility criteria, but we have staff that can easily handle that.

If structured right, we should have no problem having funds from the OTESP be deemed as a promotion for the general welfare of the people. Further, I believe any payments from a properly structured OTESP can be excluded from the recipient’s gross income.

I will also say, I do not favor limiting who can receive assistance payments. However, if the GTC wants to draw a line, that can be done. Such as anyone making over, say $80k or more a year in income, may be deemed ineligible. However, if we were to decide to have the program be wide open, here are some general thoughts.

Program is open to everyone

First I would say, there is no reason why if we determine that the program is applied broadly to everyone, that we can't allocate a set amount for fund eligibility, almost like a per-capita payment. So we could say through policy, here is the amount you are allowed to access if you need assistance and here is the form you need to fill out, real simple.

Similarly, we can set up policies to cover this matter if we want to open the program up and apply it broadly, that’s no problem. Remember, we are talking about taking a need based type of program and opening it up. This is a hypothetical that I raise to explore and explain that we can be flexible here and service all the tribal members if the GTC so desires to open this up. So if we decide to open this stimulus program up, some may not obviously conform within the need basis and there may be some tax implications. Here are a few options we can consider to address that situation.

First, we can provide for an opt-out or waiver provisions that would allow certain tribal members who do not want the payments counted as income to voluntarily refuse the payment.

Second, we can create a two-tiered stimulus plan that provides non-taxable payments to tribal members meeting certain need-based criteria and a similar taxable payment to other tribal members who do not qualify or do not wish to apply for the need-based payment. This way, all tribal members can benefit from the payment without suffering adverse tax consequences.

Third, here is another unique way to structure the program, we can structure the program to qualify as “supplemental security income” in order to ensure that the payments are recognized by the Federal Social Security Administration and other agencies to avoid any offset or reduction of other benefits to which the tribal member may be entitled.

Finally, regardless of how we structure the plan, we can make available tax advisors to meet with tribal members to discuss their individual financial situation so we can merge elements of this program uniquely and individually into the financial structures of each member’s lives.

If our nation can assist with tribal members’ basic fundamental necessities of life, we will be a better nation for it. I believe that making stimulus payments a part of a properly structured general welfare plan can lessen the burden of living expenses on our people and can lead to all of us living easier lives.