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#1063966 - 08/13/09 05:13 PM
Re: More Tribal News
[Re: Rich_Tallcot]
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Rich_Tallcot
Senior Member
Registered: 01/19/03
Posts: 3732
Loc: Union Springs, New York
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Chucky pushing for land into trust in New York
Senecas change strategy in seeking Sullivan County casino
By Victor Whitman
Times Herald-Record
August 12, 2009
MONTICELLO - One of the tribes in the hunt for a casino in Sullivan County is changing course.
Seneca Nation President Barry Snyder recently announced the Buffalo-area Nation intends on making a land-into-trust application through the Interior Department.
Snyder sent Gov. David Paterson and local officials a letter on Aug. 8, notifying them of his intent to begin the process "in the very near future."
Sources say the Nation has been under pressure by Sen. Chuck Schumer and other federal representatives to go this route. It is the traditional method for an off-reservation casino and requires an extensive environmental review, which is evaluated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They had planned largely to bypass Interior and seek approval from Congress.
"If they want a casino, I think Schumer mentioned that is the way they needed to do it," said Town of Thompson Supervisor Tony Cellini.
The Senecas also don't want to be shut out from an upcoming visit by the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Larry EchoHawk. EchoHawk plans to visit Sullivan County in late August or early September, and tour possible casino sites.
Sullivan County Legislature Chairman Jonathan Rouis said the Senecas have a better chance with this method. The Wisconsin-based Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans have a pending trust application and the St. Regis Mohawks have also said they'd like to get back into the casino game. With all the tribes moving in the same direction, the county can present a unified picture to EchoHawk.
"It strengthens their ability to get it done," Rouis said.
Still, what they want to do isn't going to be easy.
At a minimum, the process likely will take at least two years.
Only three tribes nationally have ever successfully navigated all the hurdles for an off-reservation casino using this exception in federal law.
The Senecas are partners with Michigan-based Rotate Black Gaming Inc. and have purchased 63 acres just off Route 17 in Bridgeville. Several sources, however, say the Nation has also had talks about pursuing a casino at Kutsher's or the Concord, both sites just outside Monticello. There have been extensive environmental studies at those locations, which could speed up the process.
The Senecas did not immediately return calls for comment.
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#1065771 - 08/17/09 08:41 AM
Re: More Tribal News
[Re: bluezone]
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grinch
Senior Member
Registered: 08/28/01
Posts: 4518
Loc: New York State
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Gov. Patterson is merely a figure head, a lame duck who was "given" the governership when Spitzer fouled up.
Below is just an opinion, an observation if you will,
There has to be some serious money and political power being wielded behind the scenes. You will note that Patacki, Spitzer and Patterson vowed to collect the sales taxes on cigarettes from the Tribes BEFORE they took office and for a short time after. Soon they changed the rhetoric, began to back off and fell back on that old saw "negotiate" rather than enforce. Enforcement of the law would anger the Indian and the lobbyists jeopardizing the "negotiations". The same can be said for Schummer and possibly Arcuri. These are very astute politicians who owe their political lives to others who pull the strings to keep them in power.. It leads one to Sullivan County and those who are promoting gambling in the Borsht belt. Rather than attempting to change the law in NYS allowing Casino gambling for all it is seen to be easier to use the Indians as a front. In addition it would be more profitable to allow a monopoly the rights to gambling.
They appear to be willing to sacrifice thousands of votes in Seneca and Cayuga Counties, negotiate away our way of life and our tax base to achieve their goals.
Edited by grinch (08/17/09 10:33 AM)
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#1066716 - 08/19/09 09:58 AM
Re: More Tribal News
[Re: Greymane]
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kyle585
Senior Member
Registered: 02/18/09
Posts: 7591
Loc: Somewhere out there
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By Sarah Gantz / The Citizen
Wednesday, August 19, 2009 8:05 AM EDT
AUBURN - The county will send a letter to eight state and national lawmakers and legislative bodies to ask for support in preventing the Cayuga Indian Nation from putting land into an untaxable trust.
The letter comes in response to a February U.S. Supreme Court ruling that a Rhode Island tribe could not put their land into a trust because they were not a federally recognized tribe when the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act was passed. The Cayuga County Legislature, which has been in a similar dispute with the Cayuga Indian Nation, decided at a meeting of the Ways & Means Committee on Tuesday to seek support on a national level.
“Any help we can get from our elected officials would certainly be appreciated,” said Legislator Raymond Lockwood, R-Fleming.
The letter will be sent to the state's U.S. senators, Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, U.S. Rep. Michael Arcuri and Assistant Secretary of the Interior Larry EcoHawk, among others.
The hope, Lockwood said, is that the state's representatives will oppose any legislation that would broaden the Indian Reorganization Act.
In February, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Carcieri v. Salazar that the Narragansett Tribe of Rhode Island could not put land into trust because the tribe had not been federally recognized in 1934, when the Indian Reorganization Act took effect. The act permits tribes that were federally recognized at the time to protect land in trusts.
Dozens of tribes such as the Narragansett and Cayugas who have been left out of the land-into-trust option have pressured Congress to revise the act to include tribes that gained federal recognition after the act passed.
A Carcieri fix, as opponents have coined the sought after revision, could come down to one word: Now.
The act allows tribes “now under federal jurisdiction” the option of protecting their land in trust.
The Supreme Court's February ruling upheld the meaning of “now” to be “when the act was written, in 1934,” which is how it should stay, said Legislator George Fearon, R-Union Springs.
The Indian Reservation Act, and its authority of allowing tribes to protect land, served the purpose of righting the wrongs that arose from the Dawes Act, which gave land to tribes whose understanding of land ownership clashed with that of Americans, Fearon said.
The Cayugas were not recognized in 1934 and were not affected by the Dawes Act and, therefore, Fearon said, should not be allowed to reap its benefits.
“You're giving it out to people who didn't need a fix. There wasn't a problem,” he said. “It goes way beyond fixing something that was wrong.”
_________________________
Cayugas: $1 million unpaid property taxes by April in SC.
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#1069529 - 08/26/09 04:10 PM
Re: More Tribal News
[Re: bluezone]
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Santa_Cruzer
Senior Member
Registered: 04/22/09
Posts: 2225
Loc: Westside
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Fried bread power!
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#1069672 - 08/26/09 08:57 PM
Re: More Tribal News
[Re: bluezone]
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Santa_Cruzer
Senior Member
Registered: 04/22/09
Posts: 2225
Loc: Westside
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Luv you too bz 
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#1069772 - 08/27/09 06:36 AM
Re: More Tribal News
[Re: Santa_Cruzer]
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bluezone
Diamond Member
Registered: 12/19/04
Posts: 26647
Loc: USA
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Judge Delivers Blow To NY Reservation Smoke Shops
Source: Finger Lakes News Radio
NEW YORK (AP) - A federal judge has issued a ruling that could doom an Indian reservation's booming business in tax-free cigarettes and spell trouble for other native American tobacco dealers in the state.
In a decision announced Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley Amon in Brooklyn barred a group of smoke shops on Long Island's Poospatuck reservation from selling tax-free cigarettes to the general public, saying their location on tribal lands didn't exempt them from state and federal tax law.
Only members of the Unkechaug tribe, which controls the reservation, have a right to buy cigarettes there without paying taxes, she ruled, not the many non-Indian customers who flock to the shops for cheap smokes.
If upheld, the injunction would eliminate much of the business at the stores, which sell millions of cartons of cigarettes a year and are among the biggest suppliers in the state.
The judge stayed the ruling for 30 days to give the shops time to appeal, and Unkechaug Chief Harry Wallace quickly promised that the tribe wouldn't let the decision stand unchallenged.
"It's improper," he said of the ruling.
He accused the judge of ignoring state law and policy regarding taxes and Indian reservations because she dislikes cigarettes.
"She wanted to stop sales at any cost," he said, adding that the ruling would be difficult to comply with, while robbing the stores of their competitive edge. "It would put every Indian store ... out of business."
The ruling is a victory for the city and its mayor, Michael Bloomberg, who sued the stores over their sale of tax-free cigarettes, saying they were illegal.
In its suit, the city claimed the reservation shops had made a mockery of rules restricting the sale of tax-free cigarettes to members of the tribe.
Each resident of the 55-acre reservation, near the town of Mastic, would need to consume 19,200 cigarettes a day to account for the tons of tobacco sold by the shops, the city said.
City lawyers estimated that smoke shops cost the city and state a combined $840 million in tax revenue, much of it lost to smugglers who traveled to the reservation to stock up on cigarettes, then resold them in the city.
"The city will go after every dollar that is owed to city taxpayers," Bloomberg said in a statement announcing the court decision.
Smoke shops located on state-recognized Indian reservations have enjoyed a huge business in cigarettes since the mid-1990s, in part thanks to a string of governors who have refused to enforce state laws that were supposed to set up a system for taxing sales to the general public.
State courts have repeatedly split on whether that policy, known as forbearance, absolves the reservation shops of any responsibility of collecting taxes.
As recently as July, a midlevel state appeals court ruled that smoke shops on land claimed by the Cayuga Indian Nation could not be prosecuted under state law for failing to collect taxes on cigarette sales.
Federal judges, however, have taken a harder line. One Poospatuck smoke shop owner is awaiting sentencing in a case in which he was convicted of racketeering for selling large quantities of untaxed cigarettes.
_________________________
"OUR COUNTRY IS IN MOURNING, A SOLDIER DIED TODAY."
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