Local Economic Development

The leak is the core problem — a large share of every dollar earned on the Nation is spent in border towns — taking jobs and tax revenue with it. Business is hard to start here — land classification, business-site leasing, capital, and regulation all slow local enterprise; the Navajo Business Opportunity Act (NBOA) is the law meant to help.

The goal candidates keep returning to is getting money to circulate a few more times on the Nation before it leaves — through local business, local jobs, and buying local. The disagreements are about how: grow new business, plug the leak, or push authority and the NBOA’s tools down to the chapter level.

Border-town drain — the money earned on the Nation but spent off it, in nearby towns. NBOA — the Navajo Business Opportunity Act — the law meant to give Navajo-owned business a fair shot. Business-site lease — the lease a business needs on trust land; slow leasing is a common barrier. RBDO — Regional Business Development Office — local support for entrepreneurs.

Before asking what’s broken, it helps to know who’s even supposed to be in charge — the law, the referee, and the watchers. Why this matters →

What’s the law?The NBOA, Navajo tax and business law, and Title 26 (which lets certified chapters do their own business-site leasing) shape local development. Who regulates it? (the outside referee)Tribal business and tax regulation, with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) over trust-land business leases. Who oversees it? (the inside watchers)The Division of Economic Development, the enterprises, and chapters. See the NBOA page → What’s broken — and what candidates would fix · Dollars leak off the Nation and local business faces land and regulatory friction — see below.

A starting map — confirm current laws and body names against the Nation’s official resources. General civic information, not legal advice.

• The leak. Dollars earned here are spent in border towns, taking jobs and taxes with them.
• Slow business-site leasing. Getting a business onto trust land can take years.
• Capital and regulation gaps. Local entrepreneurs struggle for financing and clear rules.
• Few local employers. Government is one of the only large employers, so private jobs are scarce.

What this costs: paychecks earned here but spent elsewhere, young people leaving for work, and a main street that never fills in.

Read summaries of how they answered — each name links to that candidate’s full interview summary:

Charlie Smith Jr Cal asked: How will you grow business in your area?Asked about the host's figures — about 1,963 fully Navajo-owned businesses against 91,000+ residents working off-Nation — Smith agreed the gap is the problem. He ties the gap to dual taxation and grazing-permit and home-site/business-site lease barriers — you can't run a business from a home-site lease — and would fix grazing-permit issues to open home sites, business sites, and alternative energy (solar, wind, hydro), negotiating with the federal trust responsibility.

Christopher Curley — Cal asked: What is your economic-development plan, given how many people work in border towns?Curley starts with the basics — housing and infrastructure, especially roads — as the foundation for economic stability, and wants the Nation to pool resources to attract funding. His signature idea is building local training centers to grow the Nation's own tradespeople (electricians, welders, carpenters) so a Navajo workforce can bid on the Nation's own projects instead of relying on off-reservation labor. He speaks from experience as a small-business owner — an educational consultant, photographer, and graphic designer.

Cornelia Carm Wagoner — Cal asked: What is your view on economic development?Wagoner diagnosed how Navajo money flows out to border towns, retelling a story from her father about reversing that one-way flow — Cal called it a profound economic point. She spoke about the NBOA from experience, giving lived examples rather than specific legislative proposals.

Eugene Badonie — Cal asked: How should services be delivered?Drawing on his Workforce Investment Board experience, Badonie emphasizes “customer choice” in services and would pursue legislation on health care for Navajo citizens, including those living outside the Nation.

Greg Bigman — Cal asked: What is your view of the NBOA, the RBDOs, and chapter autonomy?Bigman said the NBOA applies only to Navajo entities (not private firms) and doesn't help sole proprietors, and that other tribes use an outside procurement body. He criticized the Regional Business Development Offices for becoming paperwork help rather than producing real businesses, and praised Title 26 for giving chapters autonomy in principle while everything still funnels slowly through Window Rock.

Joan Gray — Cal asked: If you made Resources & Development, how would you institute that?Gray criticized enterprises like the trading posts and Navajo Arts & Crafts for not serving local needs — not stocking what ranchers need, and not showcasing local jewelers (who go off-Nation instead) — and said she would start by going directly to her people to ask what they sell and how she could help promote it.

Kimberlee Williams — Cal asked: How do gaming revenues and economic opportunity tie together?Williams framed Navajo jobs, support for Navajo-owned businesses, workforce training, youth internships, and transparency on gaming revenue (directed to infrastructure) as the catalysts; she stressed the lack of opportunities for Navajo students and the need to build the next generation.

Lavonne Tsosie — Cal asked: What are the biggest issues in your area?Her core issues are housing, the lack of jobs, and stalled economic development for relocatees, along with long-delayed infrastructure like the N9403 back road from Sanders to Allentown that communities have raised for decades without action.

Marsha Greyeyes — Cal asked: How do you spur economic development, and what about the RBDOs?From her Change Labs work, Greyeyes said the core gap is that tribal businesses aren't supported to become financially literate, and that communities should draw revenue from their own assets — trust land included, which she insists is still an asset. She argued that if all 110 chapters held Business Site Leasing Authority they could function as their own RBDOs, making the regional offices redundant; she pointed to Kayenta Township and Shonto registering businesses locally, and disclosed that Shonto's own BSL authority was temporarily revoked by the Resource Development Committee.

Only candidates interviewed by Cal Nez appear, and only where the topic came up. A blank isn’t a mark against anyone — interviews weren’t standardized, so coverage isn’t comparable across seats.

‘Economic development’ promised in every cycle while the dollars keep leaving — the same leak, renamed each election. See the root — Accountability & Justice →

Where the community stands: collecting — tallies and best ideas publish with the weekly findings.

Not promises — numbers you could actually check a year in:

• The share of dollars spent on the Nation vs. in border towns.
• Business-site leases issued, and the average wait.
• Local jobs created outside of government.

• “What’s your concrete plan to keep dollars circulating on the Nation?”
• “How would you speed up business-site leasing?”
• “How does the NBOA actually help a business in my chapter?”

• Economic Development 101 →
• Economic Development & the NBOA →
• The Enterprises →

See who’s running and read their full interviews and profiles on the candidate list →, or line up their positions side by side in the comparison grid →.

Your part — do something with this. Read what a candidate said, ask them one of the questions above, and vote your own judgment. This is a conversation — keep it going.