ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Phoenix, Arizona
technological
education districts; attendance; retroactivity
(NOW:
tax rolls; tribal land settlement)
Purpose:
Establishes the county Navajo-Hopi land dispute settlement fund with $250,000 received from the federal government pursuant to the Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute Settlement Act of 1996. Interest earned on the fund will be used to reimburse counties for lost tax collections due to the removal of certain lands owned by the Hopi tribe from county tax rolls as a result of the 1996 Act.
Background:
The Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute Settlement Act of 1996 (Public Laws 104-301) ratified the 1995 settlement agreement between the United States and the Hopi Tribe relating to longstanding land disputes between the Tribe and members of the Navajo Nation. The 1996 Act authorized the Secretary of the Interior to acquire private land and, through condemnation, state trust lands with funds provided by the Tribe and to place the lands in trust for the Tribe. The Act appropriated $250,000 to the Department of the Interior to be used as payment to the State of Arizona after an initial acquisition of state trust land. The federal legislation does not specify the use of the appropriation.
Private lands to be placed into trust for the Hopi Tribe consist primarily of lands owned either collectively or privately by members of the Tribe. Upon acquisition by the Department of the Interior, these lands will be placed into trust and removed from the tax rolls of the counties in which they lie, primarily Navajo and Coconino counties.
H.B. 2354 establishes a trust fund consisting of the $250,000 appropriation to be received by the State pursuant to the 1996 Act. Interest earned on the fund is used to offset the counties’ loss of revenue due to the removal of private lands from the tax rolls. While the federal legislation does not specify the use of the $250,000, attorneys for the Hopi Tribe state that this is the legislative intent.
The impact to the state general fund associated with this bill is $250,000 in forgone federal revenue.
Provisions:
1. Establishes the county Navajo-Hopi land dispute settlement fund (fund) with monies received from the federal government pursuant to the Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute Settlement Act of 1996. Exempts monies in the fund from lapsing.
2. Requires the State Treasurer to administer the fund as a non-appropriated fund and to credit interest earnings on monies in the fund to the fund.
3. Requires the State Treasurer, in consultation with affected counties, to annually pay to each county a pro rata share of interest earnings on the fund based upon the percentage of land in each county owned by the Hopi tribe that is subsequently removed from the county tax rolls as a result of the 1996 Act.
4. Contains an emergency clause.
House Action:
APP 2/20/01 W/D
NAA 3/1/01 DPA/SE 5-0-0-1
3rd Read 3/12/01 52-0-8-0
Prepared by Senate Staff
March 15, 2001