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News Article Silence bespeaks frustration Written by Jim McCarthy from Times Record Without a proper grounding in the history of the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission — both its recent past and, more importantly, its origins in the implementing legislation of the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980 — state lawmakers might well be sorely perplexed at today's public hearing in Augusta concerning the commission's budget. That's because tribal-state commission representatives do not intend to speak to the $78,000 proposed by Gov. John Baldacci for fiscal years 2010 and 2011 when the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee considers the budget this afternoon in a joint public hearing with the Judiciary Committee. Their silence, however, should not be construed as indifference to whether the commission needs to be funded. It does — and, in fact, the $78,000 proposed by Gov. Baldacci is less than what's needed to fund MITSC's work as the entity overseeing the "social, economic and legal relationship" between Maine tribes and the state. Committee members should understand that under the statute implementing the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act, the state is legally obligated to fund MITSC: It's not a discretionary budget item that can be eliminated or drastically reduced unilaterally by a legislative committee. At the same time, lawmakers might recall MITSC Chairman Paul Bisulca's promise last fall that Maine's Wabanaki tribes would no longer participate in a state budget process they regarded as a violation of the tribes' 1980 agreement with the state. The Maine tribes' silence today, thus, underscores their position that decisions about the commission's funding and how it is spent must be made on a government-to-government basis between the tribes and the state. Silence is a risky way to make a point. But as MITSC's executive director John Dieffenbacher-Krall points out, several unilateral actions by Maine lawmakers during last spring's legislative session shocked the four Wabanaki tribes into a realization that too many lawmakers had come to accept the commission's funding as a discretionary spending item, subject to the Legislature's de facto control through the budget-setting process. The "government-to-government relationship" envisioned by the signatories of the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act, he says, "doesn't say one party is superior and dictates to the other." Lawmakers on the two committees today should endorse the governor's budget proposal for MITSC. And their next step should be to attach a proviso calling for establishment of a new budget-setting process for the tribal-state commission. That new process would acknowledge that Maine's tribes are equal partners with the state in deciding what MITSC will do, how much it will cost and how to fairly apportion that cost. It would begin to restore a mutual respect and understanding that was seen by signatories of the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act as key to its success.

Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission (MITSC) P.O. Box 241 Stillwater, Maine 04489 (207) 817-3799 Email: mitsced@roadrunner.com Copyright 2010MITSC Privacy Policy