20 



across, the dishonesty that has disseminated from the Tongass and 

 how it is the last rain forest being denuded is wrong, and we all 

 know that. 



Mr. Wright. Just to show you how — my conception of the Con- 

 gress is today, they made a big issue out of the — it slipped my 

 mind. They are talking about increasing the minimum wage. It was 

 a big issue. It was all on our front pages of all the major maga- 

 zines, how the mean-spirited — one part of the Congress is trying to 

 keep it down to where it should be. I did not see those same people 

 talking about people here in this town making $60,000 top, to 

 $40,000, that they just eliminated. 



Now, to compensate us, they want to give me a little minimum 

 wage, ten cents an hour. It is perverted, and I think it is time to 

 get the control back to the states where it should be. 



The Chairman. Again, that is the idea of it. 



I have never seen in the Constitution where it says the Federal 

 Government should own property. 



Ted, I would like to suggest, although I deeply respect your idea, 

 that the Sitka Tribe read the bill very carefully because I believe 

 there are two provisions in there that hopefully will take care of 

 most of your interests: Subsistence, historical, cultural, and the 

 whole gamut. I do know this: The Federal Government does not 

 necessarily, if you check the record of the Federal Government, 

 keep their word very well, either. 



Mr. BORBRIDGE. But, Congressman, our main issues seem to be 

 with the State, and we are subject to the political whims of this 

 State. 



The Chairman. Under my bill, you would not be. You would not 

 be, under my bill. I just wanted to stress that, because we wrote 

 this very carefully with a lot of input, and if it needs some improve- 

 ment, look at the section — I believe it is on page five — and look 

 what might improve that, where you would not have to — and I 

 agree with you on what you are saying, but look at that very care- 

 fully, and I am going to ask the question later on about whether 

 anybody was for turning it all over to the tribes, too. I am inter- 

 ested in that, but I am looking for input. So read the bill for me 

 and see if you can give me some good suggestions. 



Mr. Borbridge: I have got your bill here. 



The Chairman. Read that one section. 



John, your comments about the economy, what else are — let me 

 ask the mayor. Is there a tracking process? Has the city, itself, set 

 up a tracking process of what happens to schools, taxes, to really 

 study the economics? Do you have any economists involved? Do you 

 have any economists? 



Mr. Hallgren. The McDowell Group does studies for Sitka. We 

 do not have anybody under contract yet at this time, but we gen- 

 erally do an annual update through our Economic Development 

 Committee. The city has upgraded its finance department in the 

 last three years, and they track very closely the income on the 

 sales tax and the property tax levels. 



The Chairman. What about your infrastructure, about the cost 

 of replacement, has that been cranked in and where will the in- 

 come come from to do that, or are you pretty well up to speed, now, 



