One of the stands Arnold Schwarzenegger has made in his bid for governor is that casinos in operation on Native American reservations should be taxed like every one else in California.

There's one problem. Reservations are not part of California. Native American reservations are considered sovereign nations and as such should not be required to pay taxes to the U.S. government. Reservations are not covered by county sheriffs or fire departments, and must fund their own emergency services. As far as schools go, I'm not sure whether they receive state funding.

Basically, I see so-called "Indian Gaming" as a way the Native Americans finally found to stick it to the white man and earn back some of the money and land which was taken from them, and now Arnold and others want to shut them down.

Should casinos on tribal land be taxed when the people there do not receive the full benefits of state citizenship?

This is a very interesting question, and I wish I knew more about the legal status of the reservations in order to make an intelligent comment. Perhaps one of the wise folks here at AD can provide some more information.

Off the top of my head, I find it hard to understand how gambling (which would otherwise be illegal in a state) can be made legal, which seems to grant the reservation the status of an independent nation, while requiring taxes to be paid, which seems to deny the status of an independent nation. You can't have it both ways, it would seem to me.

I suspect that if any state government tried to collect taxes from these operations, they would face a large number of legal issues.

that really IS a good question and one I certainly never thought about. How do the Reservations receive water, electricity, gas? How are their roads paid for, trash pickup and where is it deposited, sewage?

Morally, if these lands are truly self-sufficient and not dependant on resources from the State then no, they shouldn't have to pay taxes. If not, then these casinos should pay for what they use from the State.

the rez is out of jurisdiction of the states and their officials. the only people that have ANY jurisdiction on the rez is the feds. I think the only federal agency that actually has ANY jurisdiction is the BIA, or bureau of indian affairs. (FBI might also)



I'm not sure on all these, I assume their water comes from on rez locations. most reservations have very little, to no electricity, and I'm not sure what kind of gas you refer to (gasoline I assume) reservations may have a deal with the federal government that allows them to receive things like gas, water and electricity. (I don't know about their refuse (trash) situation, so won't comment on that.) most reservations have the conditions of a third world nation (poverty and starvation are not uncommon on the rez)



there was recently a state raid on an indian smoke shop, (tobacco store) people didn't have to pay taxes on the tobacco products purchased there, the state got upset about this, and raided them. I think they may be getting sued now, I'm not sure.

as seperate and soverign nations states should not be allowef to tax ANYTHING that happens on reservations. they were set up like that so that native americans could live in peace and possible be prosperous without having to give the states and federal governments their money. these people have very few sources for income, and should be left alone. they've been screwed enough.

Close, Unabomber, but not quite. Actual control of Indian lands is through congress, generally enforced by treaties signed with the separate Indian Nations. There are actually two kinds of reservations. Those that were set aside by the government (mostly in the west) and those that we ceded to tribes who had been continuously living on the land, and had never been removed by force or other circumstance (mostly in the northeast and midwest).

Federal law forbids the collection of such taxes on goods sold on Indian reservations to members of the tribe. However, under Washington v. Confederated Tribes, 447 U.S. 134 (1980), taxes can be collected when sales are made to non-Indian customers.

In 1988, the Department of Indian Affairs adopted a regulation that allowed Indians to purchase a limited amount of untaxed fuel and tobacco, based upon use estimates, while subjecting the remaining allotments to state taxes. Under the regulation, the tax would be imposed on non-Indians, off the reservation and would not require Native Americans to function as state tax collectors. Rather, the tax would be collected from traders.

Native Americans challenged the regulation in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Justices in Washington ruled against the Indians in the 1994 case of Department of Taxation & Finance v. Milhelm Attea & Bros., 512 U.S. 61, a Commerce Clause decision that said the State could impose on Indian traders the burden of collecting the tax. But, the Tax Department made no effort to enforce the law.

The biggest fight, so far, has come in NY. Convenience store owners in areas near the reservations, attempted to require NY to enforce the tax law, and won a decision in 1996. The State attempted to negotiate a settlement, but about half of the Indian Nations refused to take part, and the plans fell apart.

In 1998, the State attempted to seize untaxed cigarettes destined for reservations and blocking deliveries. It provoked a near-riot between Indians and police, leading to one death, demonstrations, tire-burnings and other disturbances. Gov. Pataki stopped the seizure attempts.

In essence, New York is powerless to enforce its tax laws with regard to Indian sales of gas and cigarettes, even though they are entitled to the tax on those sales. They tried again, just a year or so ago, to stop products going to a reservation owned internet "smoke shop", with the same kind of protests and the same result as the attempt in 1998.

Basically, if the Indians don't want to follow federal and state tax laws, even as they apply to them, they're not going to. Now, I'm not going to tell you that this isn't "justice", because of the way Indians were treated in the past.

On the other hand, most of the casinos built in the east (outside of New Jersey anyway) are being built by Indians, on reservation land. And they are making billions a year. They are not paying sales taxes on the hotel rooms, restaurants or gaming profits either, but of course the casino's are on their land, and are exempt. Seems like they could cough up what the Feds say they owe for some cigarrettes and gasoline sold to non-Indians.

For one thing, there is a double standard at work. The reason Arnie and others want to collect taxes from the casinos is because they are without exception cash cows. No one is mounting serious campaigns to collect taxes from an Indian coffee shop opening on a reservation.

Indians, whether employed by the tribal government, a tribal business, or the federal government, are subject to payroll taxes and income taxes just like anyone else. At my local general store, Makahs do not pay sales tax, but I do (being non-Makah).

Our school is part of the state public school system, though there are some differences in the laws which govern them. One of the most interesting differences is in the area of religion. Public schools on Indian reservations are excepted from the state/religion separation rules. Though tribes lobbied for this under the banner of maintaining traditional faiths, the school my kids attended on the Navajo reservation would open up assemblies and events with Christian prayers as well as Navajo prayers.

Indian tribes receive a lot of grant money from the federal government. I think that a smarter move (rather than pushing for tax receipts on casinos) would be to set something up which would lessen the federal dollars a tribe receives, in proportion to the profits made on the casinos.

unabomber:


The FBI has jurisdiction of murder cases on reservations, but nothing else.



We have our own water supply and processing plant. Electricity is supplied by the Washington state Public Utility Department. We have one tribally owned gas station, and I don't know what kind of deal they have for that - the prices are fairly comparable to other out-of-the-way places in the area. We have our own trash dump - it's disgusting and of course hidden way back in the woods.

As far as third world conditions, on many reservations that is very true. A majority of the population on the Navajo reservation do not have phones. A huge percentage have no electricity.

The maintenance of the infrastructure (with the exception of BIA and IHS facilities) is the responsibility of the tribal government.

Casinos can be a great way for tribes (particularly small tribes) to prosper.

That seems like a fair proposition to all parties.

So, it seems like the states have absolutedly no jurisdiction over any Indian tribes. So even if a governor wanted to tax Indian casinos, it couldn't happen unless the federal government steps in.