If the State of New York can do it, why can't the Seneca Indian Nation?

evenkatevenkat Posts: 380
edited May 2007 in A Moving Train
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=590530&category=FRONTPG&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=5/18/2007

Senecas demand $1 for each I-90 car
Nation answers state bid to collect taxes with plan for charge to use Thruway on tribal land

By JAY JOCHNOWITZ, State editor
First published: Friday, May 18, 2007

ALBANY -- The Seneca Indian Nation raised the stakes Thursday in its dispute with the state, declaring it will charge a dollar for every car that drives over tribal territory on the New York State Thruway.
The state -- which could be facing a bill of more than $9 million a year -- said the tribe's action isn't legal.


"Needless to say, the Seneca Nation has no legal basis for imposing a fee on vehicles using the Thruway," said Christine Pritchard, a spokeswoman for Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

The Seneca disagree.

"For too long, the state has paid the Nation nothing for the use of our lands," said Seneca President Maurice John Sr. "We are in the process of calculating how much revenue the nation is owed from the last 53 years. Just compensation for the future will include a fairly negotiated lease agreement, plus a percentage of the tolls."

The move comes amid increasingly combative relations between the tribe and Spitzer, stemming from the issue of sales tax collections. New York has long been under pressure from off-reservation businesses to do something about the low prices for tax-free gas and cigarettes from reservation stores.

Spitzer and his predecessor, George Pataki, have sought to get the Seneca to tax non-Indian customers. In 1997, the last time the state tried to collect the tobacco taxes, part of the Thruway was shut down due to tire burnings and confrontations between Seneca and State Police.

The tribe wrote to Spitzer April 18, telling him its leaders had voted to rescind a 1954 resolution that allowed part of the Thruway to cross the Cattaraugus reservation. The Seneca pointed to a 1999 federal court decision that found the Secretary of the Interior had not complied with laws governing rights of way on Indian lands.

The state originally paid the tribe $75,000 for the easement.

On May 5, the tribe threatened to cancel a 1976 agreement that allowed construction of what is now Interstate 86 through the Allegany Reservation. The state paid the tribe $494,386 in that deal, but John said it has failed to meet a number of other conditions, such as improving health care for nation members and waiving requirements for hunting, fishing and trapping licenses.

Amid the growing tensions, tribal leaders met May 12 with Spitzer in New York City. Nothing was worked out in the half-hour gathering, the first between Spitzer and John, but John afterward said, "We came out as friends." The two sides said they agreed to continue talking.

The tribe said it will start imposing the $1-per-car charge as of 12:01 a.m. today. won't charge drivers directly, but plans to bill the state.

The Thruway crosses the tribe's Cattaraugus Territory reservation for 2.7 miles between exits 57a and 58 south of Buffalo. An average of 26,000 vehicles drive that route daily, according to Betsy Graham, spokeswoman for the Thruway Authority. That's some 9.5 million vehicles annually.

The tribe does not plan to count cars, but will let the state calculate the figure, said Richard Nephew, co-chairman of the Seneca's Foreign Relations Committee. The tribe said it expects to be paid monthly.
"...believe in lies...to get by...it's divine...whoa...oh, you know what its like..."
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • because were not finished killing the Indians yet...

    .
    Progress is not made by everyone joining some new fad,
    and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
    over specific principles, goals, and policies.

    http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg

    (\__/)
    ( o.O)
    (")_(")
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