TAHLEQUAH — The Cherokee Nation’s 2017 budget is set and on track to be the largest in the tribe’s history.
On Monday night, the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council approved a $934.2 million budget for the coming fiscal year. With funding from a combination of grants, compacts, contracts, dividends, taxes and revenue from the tribe’s gaming and nongaming businesses, that figure represents a $170 million increase from 2016.
The budget includes money for a new facility at W.W. Hastings Hospital as part of the Cherokee Nation’s ongoing health-care capital improvement plan. The tribe is expected to break ground on the $170 million, 450,000-square-foot building by the end of the calendar year.
It also includes funding for the Connecting Kids to Coverage national campaign, paid for under the Medicare Access and Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act and led by the Center for Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program Services.
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The Cherokee Nation received $1 million over two years to provide a full range of outreach and enrollment materials in order to reach children with lower than average health-care coverage rates.
Under Cherokee Nation law, 35 percent of the revenue generated by Cherokee Nation Businesses’ casinos goes directly to the tribe’s programs and services.
Cherokee Nation spokeswoman Amanda Clinton said the 2016 budget includes a $45.5 million dividend from the tribe’s casinos, plus additional revenue from nongaming businesses, including sales of car tags, tobacco products and motor fuel.
“Today, our tribe is reaping the rewards of the perseverance and dedication our ancestors routinely displayed throughout our tribe’s history. ... The Cherokee Nation is among the most blessed nations, and it is because of the creator’s grace and never-say-quit attitude of our ancestors,” Tribal Council Speaker Joe Byrd said.
“Through great stewardship and vision, Chief (Bill John) Baker and the Tribal Council are working together to build upon our tribe’s prosperity. We are taking tribal dollars and investing where it should be invested: our citizens’ needs.”
