Ten am. Also a little bit later on it's Todd Starns after our noontime news block. And right now I do believe we have the Chief with us. Good morning, is this Chief, Chuck Hoskins Jr. Yes, it is, hey, Chief? How are you doing? Sir?
Doing well? Ill?
Sorry for un like That's okay. That happens to everybody, especially had some state. So the Chief with the Jerry kenation, we've been hearing a little bit about this new Economic Impact report. Can you fill us in? Yes?
I can we do this every two years. This report came out recently and it's a result of really us opening our books to a very skilled economists and taking a look at really everything we spend on our business side, on our government side, seeing where those dollars go to small businesses and towns that your listeners are in right now, or big businesses that are nearby. All of the spending that we do in terms of programs and services, and you add all that up and it's three point one
four billion dollars annually. I think what's most important though, is again where those numbers come from. It's all that spending, all that investing, all the roads we fix, the kids we send to college on scholarship, the people we employ to the tune of about fourteen thousand, five hundred plus worldwide,
mostly in Northeast Oklahoma. And the most important number to me when I look at it is the twenty three thousand jobs that are created or supported because of all this spending, and that time gets back to those small businesses, those medium sized businesses, those big businesses that employ a lot of people. So it's good news for the chair co nation and.
Really everywhere, well, it's good to know. Good note somebody's doing better these days. Also, this year the four year anniversary, and this is the story we ran yesterday of the man Killer Soap Water Act. And what does this all entail? I know it has a lot to do with water quality.
It does water quality, water quantity, and the just assurance that they'll be adequate water systems. What the law says is we're going to spend at least two million dollars above the federal funding that we might get. And Thomas, we talked about on this show federal funding ebbs and flows, and it's never adequate to meet all of the water infrastructure needs in Northeast Oklahoma. But we say, and increasingly this is our philosophy. We're not going to go to
the United States to come to the rescue. So we're taking some of our business dollars and putting it into the kind of water projects that Chief Mankeller before she was chief, and her husband, Charlie Soap, actually before they were married. We're organizing Cherokee people around. There's a history lesson here. In the early nineteen eighties, the community of Bell did not have running water. The United States didn't
seem to be coming to the rescue. What a Chief man Keller before she was chief due she said, let's to organize, let's dig our own water line, and so the community got organized with the help of the Cherry Connation to do it. On that basis. We've named this law after her and her husband who's still with us, Charlie Selp became the Council of the other day. We put millions TOM into mostly small water systems that need help. I'm talking about just replacing lines, replacing water, you know,
sanitation facilities, replacing pumps, replacing meters. Those things are making a big difference. We've also done surveys tom to find out what the Cherry keep people need in terms of water. Are they on rural water, are they on well water? Are they on municipal What do they think about their water? Where can we help? And so, Tom, it's four years in millions of dollars to help everybody with water. We're just going to keep our foot on the gas and keep fixing water systems.
Very good. Now, schools is in the news. You had your public schools a preciation day.
We did so. Every year, Tom, we cut a check to schools across northeast Oklahoma, one hundred and seven school districts within our reservation and in adjacent areas, seven point six million dollars shared among the schools. It's a time to number one, provide funds with no strings attached to public schools. They like that, they need that. It makes a difference in the day to day lives of students and teachers and all the other folks that make schools operate.
But the other thing is it's a good time to talk about public education. Celebrate what it means to be a teacher, Celebrate people who give up their time to be school board members. Celebrate people who are the administrators and the staff of the schools. They need that uplift from time to time, because there's plenty of reasons in public education to sort of feel like you're up against it.
And I think if you look at budgets in the state of Oklahoma, we adjusting for inflation and student counts, spend less really than we spent about a decade ago. There's got to be more funds for public education. We know they're out there, but the Cherokee Nation is always there for our schools, and we were there once again this year.
Also a little bit about the tags don't doesn't that help school with their moneys as well?
It does. That's the source of these funds. And so the Tag Compact was renewed by Governor and I placing our signature on a compact last year. Tom It's that it was the seasons of Miracles last December, not only celebrating Christmas, but celebrating that Chief Chuck Hoskin and Governor Kevin stid could agree on something. So there we go.
We agreed on this car Tank Compact, resolved a lot of issues, significantly, kept in place a framework that provides funds to public schools, law enforcement, roads and bridges, and maintain something that we have to have the state to agree to, which is tags for Cherokees who live outside of the Cherokee Nation. So we accomplished all of that. It's helping a lot of people.
Wonderful news. Hey, Chief, thank you very much for visiting with us. I know you've got a tight schedule, but thank you for making room for us. Always to thank you very much. That is Chief Chuck Hoskins Junior right here from Cherokee Nation, Principal Chief thereup. We've got our group from a Truity Credit Union coming in in just a moment here for one on one with the pro somehow you get the feeling it's going to be two on one today.