Mr. NELSON, from the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H. R. 8034] The Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, to which was referred the bill (H.R. 8034) authorizing the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to make certain grants to the people of Menominee County, Wis., having considered the same, report favorably thereon and recommend that the bill do pass. PURPOSE OF LEGISLATION The purpose of H.R. 8034, is to authorize the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to compensate the State of Wisconsin and one of its political subdivisions, Menominee County, for extraordinary expenses caused by the termination of Federal supervision over the affairs of the Menominee Tribe of Indians pursuant to the act of June 17, 1954 (68 Stat. 250), as amended. THE NEED On June 17, 1954, Congress voted to terminate the tribal status of the Menominee Indians. Termination became effective on April 30, 1961. Today, 5 years later, fears for the welfare of the Menominee people have materialized. The once stable community, suddenly saddled with the expense of full county government, is in a desperate financial crisis, and the people are living in poverty, without elementary sanitary and medical facilities. The case for Menominee County rests on the fact that upon termination the county was left with a level of sanitary facilities, and health, education, and welfare services below the level of any county in the State. The burden has been taken up by the State of Wiscon sin and by the people of Menominee County, but they have not been able to solve the deep-seated inadequacies reflected in these figures: 63. 1 - percent__ 93.5 -percent__ 33 $1.10 Infant mortality, deaths per 1,000 births (3 times State average) – (Menominee County's cost of TB hospitalization is $65,000 There is no doctor, no hospital, no dentist, no drugstore in the Water and sewer connections are not complete in Keshena and Of approximately 500 homes, there are more than 275 using out- $23.82 The county has only one struggling industry, a lumber mill, to bear the exceptionally heavy tax burden to maintain the minimal health, education, and welfare services. In 1962, Congress appropriated $660,000 to help with the county's contributions to school district No. 8, and $438,000 for sanitation facilities to ease the transition problems. The amount appropriated for completing sanitation facilities was only half enough. The school funds run out this year. The State of Wisconsin has been generous with personnel, guidance, and financial assistance where permitted by State law, but it cannot meet the full needs of the Menominee people. The people of Menominee County are being urged to use, and are using, some of the existing Federal aid programs, but many require at least 20 percent local financial participation, which is simply not available in Menominee County. The county's own source of income rests in its forest and sawmill operations, turned over to Menominee Enterprises, Inc., when tribal status was terminated. Residents of the county became stock and 4 percent bond holders. Menominee Enterprises carries 92 percent of the county's tax burden, which is rising at a rate of 5 percent a year. These taxes eat away profits and leave no funds for capital expansion, the corporation's only hope for solvency. Although efficiently managed (earnings, sales, and production increased by about 50 percent in the last 4 years), the company has been able to show a profit only 1 year. This was in 1965 when, operating at maximum capacity with existing facilities, the company had a net profit of $64,618 after paying property taxes of $392,767. However, this year the timber cut must be reduced to meet sustained yield standards. The effective tax rate per $1,000 assessed value in the county will be $36.48 by 1969, and the company will be losing an estimated $158,000 a year. A Wisconsin State Department of Taxation official has predicted that "the company will be liquidated soon to cover tax and interest payments.' PROVISIONS OF H.R. 8034 H.R. 8034 authorizes to be paid to the State of Wisconsin, for distribution to Menominee County, the following: Sec. 1: For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1967, and for each of the succeeding 3 fiscal years, the following: For school district costs. Per year Sec. 2: In order to complete the construction of sanitation facilities in Total funds___. For school district costs H.R. 8034 authorizes $150,000 for each of 4 years. Menominee County's share of the levy for joint school district No. 8 will be $267,089 in fiscal 1967. For the first time since termination in 1961, the county will have no help in meeting this obligation since the Federal appropriation of $660,000 has run out. H.R. 8034 will help the county meet this obligation, and will ease the tax burden. For public welfare H.R. 8034 authorizes $100,000 for each of 4 years. The $400,000 is intended to help meet exceptionally high welfare costs and to provide necessary tax relief. The number of people receiving welfare aids in Menominee County has increased over 95 percent from May 1961 to September 1965, and the amount of aid has increased by 190 percent. The total amount of welfare assistance during the month of September 1965 was $20,066 or roughly $7.43 for each resident. The total State expenditure for all residents of the State was a little over $7 million or an average of $1.85 per person. The welfare tax rate for the State as a whole was 1.29 mills in fiscal 1965. For Menominee County it was 2.78 mills or more than twice as much. The country's welfare costs for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1965, were $67,820. However, this figure does not represent total need. In December 1963 the State of Wisconsin established a special State bond program to aid needy owners of securities of Menominee Enterprises, Inc. Of the $1 million appropriated for this program, $462,580 was marked as "amount of relief paid." This bond program has not been renewed, and this welfare cost must be met in some other way. George M. Keith, deputy director of the Wisconsin State Department of Public Welfare, pointed out in testimony on this bill that even if 10 percent of the amount paid for relief under the bond program is an ongoing general relief cost, that amount added to the $67,000 clearly identified above as Menominee County welfare costs. would run over $100,000 a year. |