Coal-reliant Crow Tribe faces government shutdown

The chairman of the Crow Tribe told a gathering of tribal members Monday afternoon that he plans to furlough 70 government workers later this week as the government faces a possible shutdown in the absence of a new annual budget. Three hours later, however, Chairman A.J. Not Afraid contacted The Billings Gazette to announce that he intends on Tuesday to fully shut down all nonessential tribal operations not fully funded by federal grants. The abrupt reversal, he said, was spurred by a conversation with another tribal official, who said the tribe's coffers would only allow the government to keep the lights on for about another week. "He recommended it would be wise if we just do a general government shutdown," Not Afraid told The Gazette. "I thought we could (stay open), but there aren't enough carryover funds to continue operating."Having been elected last year on a platform to bring financial stability to a tribal government that has piled up debt amid declining revenue from coal production in recent years, he emphasized his administration has had to make hard decisions to trim the tribe’s fiduciary obligations from what he said was a $64 million debt when he took office...more