Yakamas Draft Tax Code, Leaving Residents And Cities Edgy Tribes In Idaho, Oregon Have Codes; Council To Review Study In November

Wed., Aug. 21, 1996

Associated Press

The Yakama Indian Nation’s proposed tax code, which would affect both tribal members and non-Indians alike, has its neighbors worried.

The tribe’s proposal includes a plan to tax income, businesses, vehicles, cigarettes, commercial sales and agricultural leases within the tribe’s 1.3 million-acre central Washington reservation.

Although city officials, residents, farmers and business owners have expressed concern, tribal officials say the 157-page document prepared for them by an Oklahoma law firm is only a draft. Leaders say they have not yet had serious discussions about adopting a tax code.

“All and all, nothing has been done,” said Tribal Councilman David Blodgett, head of the tax committee. “It’s just - in a white man’s world - a feasibility study. The ultimate decision is made by the people. They give us the direction.”

Tribal resolutions must be passed by a quorum of the tribe’s nearly 8,600 enrolled members, who constitute the General Council. The proposed tax code is expected to be reviewed at the council meeting in November.

The Yakama Nation isn’t the first tribe to propose a tax code. The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation near Pendleton, Ore., began taxing utility rights-of-way. Companies such as U S West, Cascade Natural Gas and Union Pacific Railroad must now pay the taxes.

The Shoshone Bannock tribe near Fort Hall, Idaho, has had a tax code since 1991. Of the Idaho tribe’s 544,000-acre reservation, 96 percent is land held in trust by the U.S. government.

In contrast, nearly 300,000 acres of the Yakama reservation is deeded land - reservation land that has been sold off - and includes the cities of Toppenish and Wapato and the town of Harrah.

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