Solution sought to tribal fuel tax issue

BOISE – Idaho’s Indian tribes may have won the fight for their fuel tax money this legislative session, but people on both sides of the contentious issue know it isn’t resolved. The Idaho Council on Indian Affairs has formed a subcommittee in hopes of finding a compromise.

“Let’s be the ones who do something,” said council Chairman Sen. Mike Jorgenson, R-Hayden Lake. “Let’s not be the ones who point fingers.”

House Majority Leader Lawrence Denney of Midvale said he’s considering introducing legislation next year that would collect fuel tax from the tribes but then return it.

“I think it takes away all the arguments that we’re taking money away from them,” Denney said.

“We’re going to do have to do something to get us in compliance with IFTA or suffer the consequences, which could be a lot bigger problem than what we have now,” he added, referring to the International Fuel Tax Agreement that reimburses interstate truckers who pay tax on gas in Idaho but use it out of state.

Denney and others say tribal gas stations cause the state to violate the agreement because truckers will fill up on the reservations and be reimbursed by the state for taxes that never went to the state.

Denney co-sponsored House Bill 661, which looked to take the nearly $3 million in gas tax revenue from the tribes. It was killed in a House committee on a tie vote.

Fuel tax legislation isn’t likely to come up again during this session, he said.

“Anything that’s controversial, it’s definitely too late to try to address,” Denney said.

The council’s subcommittee, made up of representatives from the five tribes, Jorgenson, council member Rep. George Sayler, D-Coeur d’Alene, and Lance Giles from the governor’s office, will meet in late April at The Coeur d’Alene Resort to begin discussions.

Giles suggested inviting representatives from the state Tax Commission and from other groups that backed HB 661, but Jorgenson said it’s too soon for that.

“That consideration was not extended to the tribes,” Jorgenson said about the lack of notification to the tribes about legislation affecting them. “We’ve got some healing to do.”

Coeur d’Alene Tribal Chairman Chief Allan said he wants to make sure the tribes negotiate with only the state, not the retail industry or the trucking industry, and that the results are binding. “I don’t want to waste this whole year negotiating and then get some firecracker next year saying, ‘I’m going to introduce some fuel tax bill anyway, no matter what leadership did,’ ” Allan said. “You’ve got my commitment, but I need a commitment from the state.”

The IFTA issue doesn’t involve the North Idaho tribes because they don’t sell diesel fuel, said Bill Roden, lobbyist for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe. He said that complicates the situation because the issues that the tribes face are so different.

“It’s not an easy issue,” Roden said. “It’s going to be important that each of them look at their own individual situation.”

Many other states have written agreements between the state and the tribes about how to deal with issues like fuel tax, and Roden is compiling them to give to the tribes for review.

House Speaker Bruce Newcomb, R-Burley, and Senate President Pro-Tem Bob Geddes, R-Soda Springs, agree that the differences between the tribes complicate negotiations.

“There are a lot of diverse issues that probably historically have been difficult if not impossible to resolve,” Geddes said.

Jorgenson said the differences among the tribes make issues like fuel tax “a football with three ends.”

Representatives of the tribes expressed frustration at last week’s council meeting about not knowing with whom they should be negotiating in the Legislature.

Sam Penney, of the Nez Perce Tribe, said, “It is difficult to start any preliminary discussion when we don’t even know who we’re supposed to be talking to.”

Jorgenson said the Indian Affairs Council is in place to do just that.

“It is my absolute belief and confidence that yes, we do have a voice, and yes, there are people that will look to this committee to give advice and give proposals,” Jorgenson said.

Geddes, Newcomb and Denney agreed.

“We’re very, very hopeful that it can create some dialogue for us to understand the tribal issues and for them to understand our issues,” Geddes said.

“That’s what it was set up to do,” Newcomb said.