Madison, WI. (AP) – Wisconsin tribes stand to gain another $81.5 million over the next two years if the state increases its tobacco tax, The Madison State Journal reported.
Eleven tribes signed compacts to collect the state’s tax on the tobacco products they sell. The tribes get a refund on 70 percent of the sales to non-members.
“In order to work cooperatively with the state, the tribes reached
an agreement on … the refund as both an incentive for tribes to
collect the tax for the state and as a mechanism for the state to
collect tax revenues it might otherwise not be able to obtain,” said
Anne Thundercloud, a spokesperson for the Ho-Chunk Nation.
South Dakota fights Lower Brule land-into-trust
Pierre,
S.D. (AP) – The state of South Dakota continues to fight the Lower
Brule Sioux Tribe over a land-into-trust application dating from 1990.
State
attorney general Larry Long believes the tribe shouldn’t be able to
acquire off-reservation land. He claims the land-into-trust process was
meant to help tribes consolidate on-reservation interests.
The
court’s haven’t been buying Long’s arguments. But the recent U.S.
Supreme Court decision in Carcieri v. Salazar has given state officials
a chance to argue for limits on the land-into-trust process.
