Tribe’s tax deal generates widespread reactions

Saturday, Oct. 8, 2005 | 8:55 a.m.

In an agreement announced Thursday, the Oneidas said they would pay nearly $60,000 in back taxes to Sherrill and continue to pay future taxes on time - at least for the five-year term of the pact. The tribe also said it would obey all city codes and allow city inspectors onto nation property.

The agreement ended an 8-year long dispute that wound its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Nation Representative Ray Halbritter said he hoped the agreement could serve as a blueprint for the tribe's tax battles with Madison and Oneida counties, and the Town of Verona, which say they are owed millions of dollars in unpaid taxes, interest and penalties.

State Sen. Ray Meier said the Oneidas had little choice but to reach an agreement because the issue was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in April, when it ruled that too many years passed for the tribe to claim that its reacquired former reservation lands were again sovereign. The ruling also said the tribe must pay property taxes on them and obey local laws.

"I don't think (the agreement) is that big a deal," Meier said. "I don't see what there is to fight about. I think, frankly, that if you read the agreement it was just really a way for the parties to let everybody save a little face and get on with life."

David Vickers, president of the Upstate Citizens for Equality, blasted the agreement, saying it continues to give the Oneidas special treatment.

"I don't like the idea of a separate agreement that further distinguishes one group from all the others," he said. "If I open a small bed and breakfast, I'm not going to be allowed to cut a deal for only five years and then at the end of that period maybe I'll decide not to pay my taxes anymore."

Oneida County Attorney Randal B. Caldwell said every municipality has different issues with the Oneidas. While the Sherrill compact resolves the question of city code enforcement, the county's situation could be more complicated, he said.

Rocco DiVeronica, chairman of the Board of Supervisors in Madison County, which has not had productive negotiations with the Oneidas recently, questioned the tribe's motives.

He noted the Oneidas have applied for federal trust status for the nearly 18,000 acres of land they have reacquired with their casino profits. Putting the land into trust places it outside the control of local government, a condition that is specifically stipulated in the agreement.

"You have to clear away debt on the properties before you can put them into trust. Basically, I think this is the first step in doing that," DiVeronica said.

He said he was more encouraged by a ruling issued Wednesday by U.S. District Judge David Hurd, who cited the high court's Sherrill decision in lifting his May 2004 injunction barring the village of Union Springs from trying to stop the Cayuga Indian Nation of New York from opening and operating a video lottery parlor in the Cayuga County village.

Like the Oneidas, the Cayugas maintained any land the tribe reacquired in its land claim area reverted to sovereign status and was exempt from local taxes and laws.

Hurd is the same judge handling the Oneida and Madison county tax cases.

"Basically, we feel very positive he may rule in our favor," he said.