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• Officials said part of the problem is that banks pay quarterly estimates of taxes and then make adjustments after they file their federal income taxes for the year.
• State budget director Jason Dilges said the state previously could count on relatively steady bank tax payments each year, but the economy and a change in federal banking law led to fluctuations in bank income and tax payments. The state also got hit with three requests for large tax refunds, he said.
• "The uncertain times, I think, have just exacerbated some of the challenges we find ourselves in," Dilges told the lawmakers.
• Dilges and Houdyshell told the committee they agree with the audit's recommendations for changes in handling bank tax payments.
• Dilges said a working group of state officials, legislators and bankers is looking at ways to simplify and streamline the bank tax.
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main some of the reasons energy development has been so difficult in Indian Country, American Indian leaders said Tuesday.
• Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly, National Congress of American Indians President Jefferson Keel and others opened a three-day conference with a round-table discussion about the hurdles of developing natural resources, from oil and natural gas to renewable sources.
• Shelly said his tribe is working on modernizing its energy and environmental codes to better position itself for new development opportunities.
• "So many years, we've been talking," Shelly said. "I'm getting old. Let's get it done."
• He urged tribal leaders to band together and take advantage of the opportunities they have to bring in revenue, create jobs and become energy independent.
• On the Navajo Nation, which spans parts of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, unemployment tops 60 percent and some families are still without electricity and running water. Shelly said he doesn't have time to wait for some other state or federal agency to find a solution.
• Tribal leaders have been asking for years for the federal government to streamline permitting processes and curb oversight to address the issue. It was Keel who urged Congress last year to pass legislation to expand leasing reform and create an

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