It came nearly three months late, but the city of North Bend got its money. The Coquille Indian Tribe made good last week on a quarterly payment for hotel room taxes, along with another payment on Monday that isn't due until Aug. 1.

On Tuesday, North Bend City Administrator Jan Willis said the city had received the overdue payment, which covered the city's third fiscal quarter, January through March. The city also received its fourth-quarter payment from the tribe, three weeks early.

Although sovereign nations can't be taxed, the tribe and the city have a 14-year-old agreement that calls for the Coquille tribe to pay for municipal services and also to pay the hotel room charge.

The room charge mirrors the 7 percent transient room tax paid by other Bay Area hoteliers. Along with the money from the tribe, the taxes fund the Coos Bay-North Bend Visitor and Convention Bureau. In North Bend, the money also helps pay city expenses.

The bureau, which advertises Bay Area tourism, receives two-sevenths of North Bend and Coos Bay's transient room tax funds.

The $44,000 third-quarter payment had been due since April 15. Tribal attorney Brett Kenney said last month the tribe wanted to renegotiate its contract with the city and had decided to withhold the nearly $44,000 payment.

Willis chose not to comment on whether the situation that caused the late payment had been resolved, or whether the tribe plans to continue paying the occupancy tax in the future.

Ray Doering, a spokesman for the Coquille Economic Development Corp., the tribe's business arm, said the tribe's payments to the city for the occupancy tax are caught up through June 30, but he wouldn't explain the change of heart. The tribe sent the city $94,531 for the two quarters.

"It was just a decision that was made," he said. "This is between the tribe and the city of North Bend. We'll be happy to talk about it once everything is resolved."

Katherine Hoppe, the director of the Visitor and Convention Bureau, welcomed the news, although she said she wasn't worried about the withheld payment. The tribe had sent a letter on June 11 stating it planned to continue supporting the bureau.

"It's all caught up now. As far as what's going to happen in the future, I don't know," Hoppe said. "It's something the tribe and the city of North Bend need to work out."