It now pays to serve on the Lumbee Tribal Council.

Two-hundred dollars a month, to be exact, following a vote of the 21-member council last week, with $100 being for attendance to meetings and $100 for expenses associated with tribal duties such as transportation.

We are sure that a collective groan was sounded by the Lumbee Nation last week when we reported the approval of the stipends, but the reimbursement is modest and in line with what other elected officials in this county are paid — with the exception being the county commissioners, whose pay and benefits are at the top of all 100 counties in North Carolina.

Another good thing about the stipend for Tribal Council members is that the money — which will add up to just north of $50,000 a year — will come from unrestricted funds, a legal source, and not from federal dollars that have been earmarked to meet housing needs for members of the tribe. It should be noted that Tribal Chairman Harvey Godwin will not pocket the $200, but will give $100 a month to Lumbee Elders groups and the other $100 to the tribe’s Boys and Girls Club.

You may recall that in 2013 the tribal government had to stop paying council members a stipend of $550 a month that was coming illegally from funds provided by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. But that didn’t happen until the stipend had been paid for seven years, beginning at $250 a month and then, following the playbook of our county commissioners, growing quickly and secretively from there, eventually adding up to $735,000 that was stolen from tribal members who might have benefited. Shamefully that money was never reimbursed.

The Robesonian looked in 2013 at what locally elected officials are paid and found a hodgepodge, with a low of $10 a meeting for commissioners in Red Springs, to salaries in Maxton that are excessive, the mayor receiving $7,200 a year and board members $3,600.

As an FYI, we will tell you that members of the Lumberton City Council receive about $7,400 a year, and the mayor about $8,900. Members of the Board of Education for the Public Schools of Robeson County receive about $475 a month plus $250 for travel, with the vice chairman receiving $50 more and the chairman $100 more.

These salaries are a bit dated, but we assume they have not changed substantially.

We know that Robeson County residents look with a jaundiced eye at such stipends, this pool having been dirtied by the avarice and arrogance of our county commissioners. But except for the commissioners and perhaps Maxton, most local governmental boards pay themselves reasonably.

The Lumbee Tribal Council members can now claim the same.